Russia Moves To Ban Jehovah’s Witnesses

The Supreme Court in Russia has begun hearing a
government request to ban the Jehovah’s Witnesses and
declare it an extremist organisation.
BBC reports that the justice ministry has already placed its
headquarters near St Petersburg on a list of extremist
groups.
The US-founded Jehovah’s Witnesses has about 8 million
people worldwide and is known for its foreign ministries as
well as its door-to-door campaigns.
In Russia alone, it has 175,000 members and 395 branches
across the country.
As the case began in Moscow on Wednesday, lawyers
representing the movement submitted a counter suit,
asking the High Court to declare its members victims of
political repression and the justice ministry’s action
unlawful.
The religious organisation had also urged the court to
recognise the group was facing political persecution, the
Russian Legal Information Agency reported.
However, the court dismissed the claim, saying it did not
have jurisdiction.
The court ruled that this was not part of its jurisdiction, but
did not say whose it was, Russia’s legal information agency
reported. The case was eventually adjourned until Thursday.
By prohibiting its members from taking blood transfusion,
the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a group violates the law on
resistance to extremism, the spokeswoman for Russia’s
Justice Ministry told the Supreme Court on Thursday.
“Checks have found that the organisation is in breach of
the law on resistance to extremism. In particular, the
organisation’s religious literature forbids blood
transfusion for its members in defiance of the doctors’
recommendation,” the spokeswoman said, providing
documentary evidence about one such case.
The ministry argues that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’
activities “violate Russia’s law on combating extremism”
and their pamphlets incited hatred against other groups.
Also, the Justice Ministry’s official said Jehovah’s
Witnesses insist on their own exclusiveness, which also
contradicts the law on resistance to extremist activity.
“The religious organization Jehovah’s Witnesses has
been repeatedly warned by courts of law, but it has
taken no required measures to eliminate the violations,”
the Justice Ministry said.
The Justice Ministry believes that Jehovah’s Witnesses
must be outlawed and the organization’s properties,
including those of the 395 regional chapters, confiscated.
“In view of the threat posed by the organisation
Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Justice Ministry asks for
declaring it extremist and banning its activity,” the
Justice Ministry’s official said.
A delegate of the religious body Yaroslav Sivulsky told the
BBC that the movement had nothing to do with extremism
and he complained that in every case the courts never really
listened to their arguments.
According to Amnesty International, 16 members of the
group in southern Russia were found guilty of organising
and participating in a banned “extremist organisation” in late
2015.
A ban would directly affect around 400 of its groups and
impact on all of its 2,277 religious groups in Russia which it
said united 175,000 followers.