Alexis II appealed for reconciliation with one another and forgiveness of all offenses on Forgiveness Sunday before the start of the Great Fast, the news agency ITAR-TASS reports. On that day the head of the church performed the liturgy in the church of Christ the Savior. Several thousands persons attended the service.
Alexis II wished for Orthodox people to go through the time of the Great Fast for the benefit of the soul , in the words of the apostle, "casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of righteousness."
"It is necessary that there be moderation not only in food but also in words, acts, and deeds," the patriarch said, noting that reconciliation is an important prerequisite for beginning the Great Fast.
In the evening the patriarch served vespers with the ritual of forgiveness in the church of Christ the Savior, during which the clergy and believers, kneeling, asked one another for forgiveness for voluntary and involuntary sins. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 February 2001)
TIME OF GREAT FAST BEGINS FOR ORTHODOX
NTV, 26 February
2001
The Great Fast has begun for Orthodox Christians, the news agency ITAR-TASS reports. The first day of the fast is called Pure Monday. The establishment of the holy forty day period, as the great fast days are called, goes back to the ancient Christians. The Great Fast along with Passion Week, is devoted to remembering the suffering and death of the Savior on the cross, lasting from the Monday after Maslenitsa through the Great Saturday before Pascha.
The fast can be alleviated for children, pregnant women, and sick folk. The forty great fast days and passion week are the path believers should take up to Pascha. This year it will be celebrated on 15 April.
In the evening Patriarch Alexis will begin reading the penitential order of Andrei of Crete, which is read during the first week of the Great Fast, in the church of Christ the Savior. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 February 2001)
ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS BEGIN GREAT FAST TODAY
Radiotserkov, 26
February 2001
The Great Fast is part of the pre-Easter fast that lasts in all for 48 days, the forty days of the Great Fast and the Passion Week preceding Pascha. The pre-Easter fast is one of the most strict. Meat, fish, and dairy products are entirely excluded from the diet. Through the whole fast, fish is permitted only twice, on Annunciation (7 April) and Pussywillow (Palm) Sunday (8 April). Although the regimen of the Great Fast is very strict, each faster chooses the degree of strictness in accordance with one's own physical and spiritual condition and receives approval for the strictness or leniency from a priest. The fast is lightened for sick folk and students.
But the Orthodox fast is not just restriction in food. The true fast is connected with prayer, repentance, forgiveness of offenses, abstaining from recreational and entertainment events and from conjugal intimacy, and limitation or complete abstention from watching television. The person who fasts is supposed to avoid idle conversations and events that could upset spiritual calm and a prayerful mood. If a person sees the fast only as abstinence from food, then this incorrect understanding of the point of the Orthodox fast can cause spiritual harm, since the main goal of Orthodox fasting is spiritual improvement through repentence and cleansing from sin. Abstinence from food is only one of the means to achieve such a spiritual condition. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 Febraury 2001)
Some churches are finding that Russia and some of the former Soviet republics can be very cold places indeed.
In Russia all religious organizations had to re-register with the authorities by Dec. 31 or face compulsory liquidation. And in some nearby republics, officials are actively repressing groups.
According to the 1997 Russian law on "freedom of conscience and religious unions," the failure to re-register means a group cannot have legal status. In practice this means the group would have a problem opening a bank account, renting offices or places of worship, or distributing literature. Registration is especially difficult for religious organizations that cannot prove that they have been present in Russia for more than 15 years.
The Keston News Service reported Jan. 12 that up to 96 of the 104 mosques in Ulyanovsk, about 500 miles east of Moscow, had not re-registered. Some communities of Pentecostals have refused to submit to the re-registration process. In Moscow itself, Keston reported, the local branch of the Salvation Army was refused registration, as was a group of Buddhists.
In Siberia, six Catholic parishes were not registered by the deadline, Keston reported. Father Andrei Duklewski said this was due to the inaccessibility of the parishes, which made it difficult to complete all the paperwork on time.
Radio Free Europe, meanwhile, reported Feb. 2 on a round-table discussion held in Moscow to discuss the status of religious freedom in the country. Those present criticized the deadline for re-registration, as well as the law on religion which designates the Russian Orthodox Church as having a dominant role in spiritual life.
According to Radio Free Europe, presidential human rights ombudsman Oleg Mironov said about 30% of religious organizations, or about 4,500 groups, did not re-register with the Justice Ministry or local department before the deadline. The Russian Justice Ministry put the figure at only 10%.
Mironov said he had written to President Vladimir Putin in November asking him to seek an extension of the registration deadline to 2003 and to purge the law of its discriminatory measures. Mironov's deputy, Alexey Lebedev, said the request did not get a very positive response.
The January bulletin of the Christian news agency Compass Direct noted that some Protestant, Muslim and Orthodox groups failed to meet the registration deadline because of resistance by local authorities and months of delays fighting battles in local courts. Pentecostal churches especially experienced problems in local areas probably due to their more active style of worship and more aggressive ministries.
Battles in Moscow
Registration for some organizations has been particularly difficult in Moscow. Last month Compass Direct reported that the Moscow courts rejected the Salvation Army's appeal Nov. 28 for re-registration as a religious organization.
The city court upheld a district court decision stating that the word "army" indicated the group might be military and a threat to national security. As a result of the decisions, the Salvation Army was evicted from two of its seven rental properties in the city. (It had more success with the federal Committee of Religious Expertise. The panel recommended unanimously Dec. 26 to approve the Salvation Army's application for registration on the federal level as a centralized religious organization.)
Earlier this month a court battle resumed in Moscow over a possible ban on Jehovah's Witnesses. Authorities accused the sect of breaking up families, fomenting national discord, curbing individuals' rights and converting minors without their parents' permission, the New York Times reported Feb. 6. But on Friday, Reuters reported that a city court judge rejected the city prosecutor's case, thus allowing the Jehovah's Witnesses to continue their activities.
The court case had been brought by the Committee to Protect Youth From Totalitarian Sects, under Article 14 of Russia's Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Association. Proceedings against the group, which says it has 280,000 members in Russia, including 15,000 in Moscow, had been postponed several times as prosecutors sought more time to gather evidence. Outside of Moscow, 361 Jehovah's Witnesses groups have already obtained registration.
Persecution in the republics
The former Soviet republics see their own share of religious discrimination. In the Crimea peninsula, in southwest Ukraine, the Lutheran parish in the town of Sudak has been unsuccessfully fighting to regain the German Lutheran church confiscated in 1930. The parish learned Christmas Eve that it was no longer allowed even to rent the building for services, the Keston News Service reported Feb. 7.
The museum based in the church also decided simultaneously to halt the building's use by an Evangelical Christian/Baptist congregation. Both communities were forced to hold their Christmas services in hastily arranged alternative premises. Since then, neither congregation has made any progress in regaining use of the Lutheran church building, which is now closed for repairs.
The situation is worse in Turkmenistan. There, religious communities live under constant surveillance and have to abide by restrictive laws, while members of nontraditional congregations face routine harassment and imprisonment, Radio Free Europe reported Feb. 19.
Earlier this month, London-based Amnesty International issued an alert that urged Turkmen authorities to release Baptist Christian Shagildy Atakov from a labor camp in northeastern Turkmenistan.
A father of five, Atakov was fined $12,000 and sentenced to two years in a labor camp in March 1999 on charges of fraud connected with his automobile business. His sentence was later increased to four years. Amnesty International believes that the case was fabricated and that the real reason for Atakov's imprisonment is his religious affiliation. Atakov's wife and children have been placed under house arrest in a small village close to the Iranian border.
In November 1999, Turkmen authorities ordered the razing of a Seventh-day Adventist church in the capital Ashgabat without prior notice. The decision followed a similar attack on a Hare Krishna temple.
Under Turkmen law, religious organizations must prove that they have at least 500 citizens over the age of 18 as adherents to gain official recognition. In addition, all of the faithful must live in the same city or town. This double requirement has prevented all but Sunni Muslims and Russian Orthodox Christians from attaining legal status.
Recently Turkmenistan's president, Saparmurat Niyazov, indicated his desire to further extend his authority over spiritual matters. He has published a code of spiritual conduct for his fellow citizens, Agence France-Presse reported Feb. 20. The book, called the Rukhname, has been billed as a program of spiritual development, a code of moral and ethical commandments and a charter for how the citizens of this central Asian republic should act.
In a three-hour speech to the Peoples Council last Sunday, Niyazov said the book would "determine the main criteria for the development of the Turkmen people and their moral qualities in the 21st century." It remains to be seen whether his speech wins over any religious-rights activists. (posted 26 Febraury 2001)
Russian president Vladimir Putin warmly greeted Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus on his name-day at a reception which was held in honor of the primate in the dining room of the church of Christ the Savior. The head of state said that he joined his voice with the greetings addressed to one of the most respected people in Russia. The president wished the primate long years, health, and success "in the improvement of Russia, including spiritual improvement." "The Russian Orthodox church has always been alongside its people, in days of triumph and days of difficult trials. Today the voice of the church and your voice, Your Holiness," the head of state emphasized, "is very well noted not only in the country but also abroad."
In his turn Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland. "The gaze of all Russians who hope for the strengthening of our fatherland is turned upon you as the supreme commander in chief, the primate said. The patriarch expressed the hope that the twenty-first century will be for Russia a century of peace, creativity, and prosperity. "This is our common wish and we all should help the president in the accomplishment of the tasks that face Russia, so that he will feel the support of the whole nation," the patriarch said. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 February 2001)
The Golovin municipal district court of Moscow yesterday refused to satisfy the suit of the procurator of the northern district of the capital for the liquidation of the Moscow religious society of "Jehovah's Witnesses." That was the outcome of the sensational trial that lasted two and a half years. This decision of the court carries a matter of principle for a subtantial portion of religious organizations active in Russia. If Judge Elena Prokhorycheva had taken the side of the procurator, it would have created a dangerous legal precedent.
The "Jehovah's Witnesses" congregation was registered by the Department of Justice of Moscow in 1993. Under the soviet state the Jehovists had operated underground since they refused to serve in the army. Yesterday Procurator Tatiana Kondratieva reproached the congregation with this charge as well, although the constitution contains the right to alternative service. In 1996-1997 a criminal case was opened against the Jehovists on the charge of inciting religious hostility which was reviewed by the same northern procuracy and was closed for lack of evidence of criminal activity. But the procurator initiated a civil case for prohibition of the organization.
The procuracy's claims regarding the "Witnesses" bore a multifaceted character. For example, in its opinion the organization's members' participation in the meetings and services occupied "so many hours every day that no time was left for fulfilling family obligations, useful labor, family communication, recreation together, and self-improvement." The negative attitude of the "Witnesses" toward other religious organizations was interpreted as inciting inter-religious conflict. Fulfillment of the requirements of the Jehovist leadership was interpreted as "replacement of the authority of family members with the authority of leaders of the organization." Rejection of blood transfusion was interpreted as "encouragement of suicide."
Such claims could be applied to a majority of confessions, including even Orthodoxy. Hours-long church services also detract from "family recreation." One can find in Orthodox literature negative assessments of the activity not only of these very Jehovists but also Catholics and protestants. An Orthodox spiritual counselor is more authoritative for zealous parishioners than nonbelieving relatives. Many elderly folk rush to the same spiritual counselor for blessing before going to a hospital for treatment. So should one consider the refusal of a priest to permit an operation "encouragement of suicide"?
In our days Orthodox believers may not be alarmed for their own parishes, so long as the "romance" between the state and church lasts. But other organizations could be less fortunate. And although in Russia legal precedent is not operative, a procurator's victory in the "Jehovist" trial could have provoked a chain reaction. Especially in regions where "nontraditional" religious associations are treated still with greater suspicion than in the capital.
But for now one can speak of this only theoretically. The court took a moderate and measured decision, guided not by sympathies or antipathies but by the standards of the legislation. The procuracy was not helped by the presence on its side of the Moscow Department of Justice: its representative, Elena Filipchuk, declared in yesterday's session that "the organization in all of its activity restricts the rights of its members and should not exist." However the weakness of the procuracy's position was obvious, especially when one takes into account that in the concluding speech Tatiana Kondratieva vigorously used purely emotional arguments such as, "We do not want our children to become kids who don't remember their family." But yesterday in court emotion did not triumph but rather the old British principle: "I do not agree with your views, but I am prepared to do everything in order to give you the opportunity to express them."
Galina Krylova, the "Jehovah's Witnesses" attorney, answered questions from Segodnia reporter Natalia Rostova:
--What does the court's decision mean to you?
--This is a remarkable decision, testifying that a religious organization cannot be banned on the basis of its doctrine.
--To what extent was the accusation proven?
--The procuracy's position was flawed from the start: doctrinal disputes but not one piece of evidence. Here is the accusation: "Jehovists" incite religious hostility. But incitement of hostility is, for example, when cossacks beat Krishnaites. Previously they fought against dissidents; now, with heterodox. The procurator says that "Witnesses" occupy an anti-state position in refusing military service, but they have consented to alternative service! "Witnesses" do not observe our holidays. "Which ones?" I asked. "Christmas." "Which one?" "Orthodox." But why not the Catholic Christmas? There also is not one instance of the dissolution of the family of congregation members.
--And the charge of refusing blood transfusion?
--Everyone has the right to choice of treatment. There is an alternative: use of a substitute for blood. The law on health care permits this. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 February 2001)
RELIGIOUS SECT GAINS VICTORY IN MOSCOW TRIAL
by Michael Wines
News York Times, 24 February 2001
The Jehovah's Witnesses won a potentially far-reaching victory today in a Moscow court over prosecutors who had sought to ban the group under a 1997 law that prohibited religious sects that incite hatred or intolerance.
Ending a lengthy trial, a city court judge threw out charges that the Witnesses had broken up families, tried to convert minors without their parents' consent and even pushed members toward suicide.
The ruling means that the group's 10,000 Moscow adherents can continue to practice their religion freely. A Moscow spokesman for the Witnesses said it would affect the 120,000 other active members throughout Russia whose local communities probably would have faced similar charges had the prosecutors won the case.
It also sets a political precedent, though not a legal one, for many other religious groups outside the Russian mainstream.
The 1997 statute, the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Association, certifies Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism as the nation's established religions, requiring other faiths to meet a long string of requirements to win the right to perform such everyday acts as renting property and handing out leaflets.
Critics have charged that the law is an effort to shield the Russian Orthodox Church, by far the nation's dominant faith, from competition.
Church officials deny that, but say the law is needed to keep cults and extremist groups from taking advantage of a population that is only starting to re-establish its ties to religion after 75 years of Soviet-enforced atheism.
The Orthodox Church has been especially critical of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who have been aggressive in recruiting members.
The charges against the Witnesses sprang from a 1998 suit against the group inspired by an organization of people whose relatives had been lured into cults. The case was in recess for two years while five court- appointed experts studied the group's beliefs and religious practices, measuring them against the law's requirements.
In the trial that ended today, four of the five testified that they were opposed to the group.
The judge rejected their assessments, but said the decision could be appealed within two weeks. (Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company, posted 24 February 2001)
MOSCOW COURT VINDICATES JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AFTER YEARS OF PERSECUTION;
Effort to outlaw the group is dismissed. Action called a victory for
religious freedom.
by Robyn Dixon
Los Angeles Times, 24 February 2001
Earlier generations of Yaroslav Sivulsky's family were persecuted as Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union, and then the state still sought to ban the group as a dangerous cult--even in democratic Russia.
Finally, in what was called an important victory for religious freedom in Russia, Sivulsky saw justice done Friday when a Moscow court threw out a case that sought to outlaw the group in the capital.
In 1998, an anti-cult group called the Committee to Save Our Youth pushed for action against the Jehovah's Witnesses. Prosecutors in Moscow's northern district launched the case in early 1999 based on Russia's controversial 1997 law on religion, designed to limit the activities of foreign religious organizations.
For Sivulsky, the case was a flashback to the repressive Stalin regime 50 years ago when his parents, grandparents and thousands of other Jehovah's Witness families were exiled to Siberia. His father got seven years in a labor camp, he said.
"The accusations were basically the same," he said Friday. "The accusation was that their religion ran counter to the ideology of the Communist Party."
Sivulsky, 33, was jailed for 18 months in 1987 for refusing to serve in the Soviet army. Believers do not accept blood transfusions, refuse to salute any national flag or do military service.
"In court in 1987 , I refused the services of a lawyer because the lawyer, the prosecution and the judge all played on the same team against me," he said.
Prosecutors in 1999 took action to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses under an article in the religion law aimed at cults, which can be outlawed for splitting families, inciting religious discord, encouraging suicide or denying medical care to the critically ill.
"Today's decision sends a very important and optimistic message to other religions and confessions trying to practice in Russia," said Sivulsky, who is spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.
"Russian society is not prepared to go back to totalitarian thinking," he said. "It is impossible to prohibit freedom of religion, freedom of association and freedom to speak to people, which is basically what the prosecution was demanding."
Human rights groups welcomed Friday's decision but cautioned that harassment of many religious groups by bureaucrats and police remains common in Russia.
Advocates of religious freedom feared that a successful prosecution against the Jehovah's Witnesses would have opened the gates to similar actions against many other religious groups struggling to operate in Russia.
The court called in five experts to examine the literature of the Jehovah's Witnesses before the judge dismissed the prosecutor's case for the ban.
"It's a very important test case. It sets the standards for how much evidence you have to produce to ban a group like this," said Diederik Lohman, director of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch. "The fact that all the literature had to be examined by experts sets a precedent for the way cases like this are to be dealt with."
The Jehovah's Witnesses group was founded in the late 19th century in the U.S. and appeared in Russia several years later. It now claims to have 250,000 followers here.
Galina Krylova, a lawyer for the group, said the Moscow case was based on absurdities.
She cited a "stupid accusation that my clients don't celebrate the Russian Orthodox Christmas--but Muslims or Jews don't celebrate it either."
Russian Orthodox Deacon Andrei Kurayev, professor of theology at St. Tikhon's Institute and Moscow State University, insisted that it was clear that the Jehovah's Witnesses are "a totalitarian sect" that must be resisted strongly by the Orthodox Church's anti-missionary program.
"This sect tries to control people's consciousness," he charged. "They very strictly limit all the information that their followers get. Thus, they are a threat not only for the state but for individuals as well."
But he said he feels that it is up to the Orthodox Church to struggle against such groups.
"We should work hard and struggle for people's souls rather than wait for courts to ban them," he said.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which bitterly opposes missionary activities, was one of the main proponents of the 1997 religion law, which forced many denominations to go through a difficult registration process. The only ones excused were those defined as "traditional" to Russia: Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism.
The Salvation Army's registration was rejected by the city of Moscow in 1999, and it has been struggling since then to have the decision overturned. (Copyright 2001 / Los Angeles Times, posted 25 February 2001)
Today Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus answered questions of a strana.ru reporter pertaining the problems of INN.
"Your Holiness, how do you assess the conclusions of the Theological Commission on the INN problem?"
"I think that it was a very open and frank conversation and the concluding document that was adopted defined the position of the Russian Orthodox church and of theologians, and not only theologians but also diocesan bishops and spiritual counselors and superiors of stauropigial monasteries. This document was worked out by collective wisdom and it contains an appeal to me to send a pastoral letter dealing with this topic. I think that by the time of the Great Fast and using the time of the Great Fast I will send a message and deal with this problem which has upset some believers. It must be explained that INN has no confessional significance whatsoever and it does not affect the bases of our faith and therefore, perhaps, some forces that are hostile to the church are trying to use it, declaring that INN is practically a renunciation of Christianity. This does not correspond to reality whatsoever. This is a farfetched matter. Today I received a delegation from the Orthodox Church in America. I asked: 'What is the state of this problem in your country?' They said: 'As soon as we begin paying taxes we immediately have an INN, and the problem does not arise.' We simply are not yet accustomed to the fact that the computer system and new technologies have entered our life, which permit auditing taxes which a person should pay and will pay."
"Your Holiness, how real is the threat of schism in the church because of INN?"
"It doesn't exist; this is an imaginary thing. Healthy thought should prevail here and there are no sixes in INN. The number 666 itself does not have any mystical significance because in the Bible there is a page numbered 666; we do not tear it out. Always in Russia throughout its history, when one century has ended and a new one begun, always eschatological moods have appeared. Well one century has ended, and a new millennium has begun. So these eschatological moods have also appeared. We need to explain that here there is a great deal that is farfetched; perhaps someone who wishes to sow confusion among believer has especially stirred this up." (tr. by PDS, posted 23 February 2001)
MOSCOW COURT SIGNALS VICTORY FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
MOSCOW, RUSSIA - "Today is a historic day for religious freedom in Moscow and throughout Russia," declared Russian lawyer, Galina Krylova, after Judge Yelena Prokhorycheva announced her decision to dismiss the charges against Jehovah’s Witnesses and ordered the Prosecutor’s office to pay costs. The judge allowed ten days for an appeal.
Artur Leontyev, lawyer for Jehovah’s Witnesses, expressed his pleasure with the verdict in a trial that lasted over two years, stating: "We are delighted for the 10,000 Witnesses in Moscow who were not allowed to renovate and build places of worship while this trial was in progress. Moscow should now come in line with the Federal Government and the 360 communities across Russia that have already legally recognized Jehovah’s Witnesses."
This is the fifth time in five years that the prosecutor’s office in Moscow’s Northern Administrative District has challenged the freedom of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow. From 1995 to 1998, it conducted four criminal investigations against the Witnesses but found no evidence of criminal activity. Yet, in a move that appeared to be driven by bias, the prosecutor’s office filed a civil complaint based on the very same accusations as in April 1998, but this time availing themselves of provisions to ban religious organizations, according to their understanding of the 1997 law. Once again they have failed to cite a single illegal action.
Scholars from Russia, Europe, and elsewhere, who have analyzed the teachings, writings, and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses, have repeatedly confirmed that the Witnesses form no threat to the people or the governments of any of the 235 lands in which they live - including Russia.
For centuries, Russia has only recognized one major religion, Russian
Orthodoxy. The 1997 law acknowledges the so-called ‘traditional faiths’
of Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. "Today’s judgment indicates Russia’s willingness
to live with a variety of faiths and abide by its international agreements,"
said Vasilii Kalin, Chairman for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.
MOSCOW COURT REFUSES TO BAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Agence France Presse, 23 February 2001
A Moscow court refused to ban the local activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses Friday, a ruling hailed by the sect which has been fighting a legal battle to remain in Russia for more than two-years.
The presiding judge Yelena Prokhoricheva, announcing the decision in court, said she would present the reasons for her ruling at a later date in writing.
Members of the US-based religious group present in court hugged each other and clapped, but parents of adherents who launched the legal bid to outlaw the Jehovah's Witnesses wept as the judge read out her decision.
The committe of parents said it would launch an immediate appeal.
"This is a regrettable decision but we will continue to fight," a member of the committee, Alla Javoronkova, told AFP.
She accused the judge of taking a "political decision under pressure from the West."
The Jehovah's Witnesses were accused of breaking up families, inciting their members to suicide and threatening the life and health of adherents by banning blood transfusions. (Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse, posted 23 February 2001)
COURT APPROVES THE ACTIVITY OF "JEHOVAH WITNESSES"
Pravda.ru,
23 February 2001
Inter-municipal court of Moscow has rejected a lawsuit on prohibiting the Moscow branch of the Jehovah's Witnesses to exist and banning its activities that was filed by the prosecutor's office of Moscow's Northern Administrative District. The court handed down its ruling Friday afternoon. Judge Yelena Prokhorycheva also obliged the prosecutors to pay for the work of the five experts who studied the sect's literature and activities over the past two years, Interfax reports. She also announced that the ruling can be appealed in the next two weeks. Prosecutor Tatyana Kondratyeva said that she has "to study the court ruling in detail," adding "and then maybe I will agree with what it says."
PATRIARCHATE COMMENTS ON WITNESSES CASE
Echo of Moscow,
23 February 2001
"The Russian Orthodox church did not initiate the judicial case against Jehovah's Witnesses but it considers the activity of this organization to be dangerous." With these words an official representatives of the Moscow patriarchate, Fr Vsevolod Chaplin, commented upon the decision of the Golovin court of the capital, which refused to prohibit the activity of this organization. In addition, in the decision of the judge, the procurator who filed the suit will have to pay for the work of the first experts who studied the literature and became acquainted with the activity of the society of "Jehovah's Witnesses" over the course of two years. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 February 2001)
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES WIN MOSCOW TEST CASE, BEAT BAN
by REUTERS, 23 February 2001
The Jehovah's Witnesses won a two-year courtroom battle on Friday when a judge refused to liquidate the group's Moscow communities in a case seen as a key test of Russia's attitude to religious freedom.
The battle focused international attention on a 1997 law which approved Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity as Russia's traditional religions and forced faiths without a long history of Russian activity to undergo a complicated registration process.
"Despite all the efforts of the prosecutor, justice was victorious,'' spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses Yaroslav Sivulsky said by telephone. "You can now say freedom of belief really still exists in Russia.''
A city court judge threw out a case brought by the prosecutor of the city's northern region, which accused the Witnesses of breaking up families, infringing individuals' rights and converting minors without parents' permission.
The prosecutor also charged the group, which says it has some 120,000 active followers and more than twice as many members in Russia, of breaking Russia's 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Association, which the United States and the Vatican have vehemently criticized.
The Jehovah's Witnesses rejected all the charges and Sivulsky said the victory would resonate far beyond the capital.
"The prosecutor said we are beginning with Moscow and then will liquidate the other communities across the whole of Russia, despite the fact that we have already registered 361 of them.''
"It is a decision with significance not only for Moscow's Jehovah's Witnesses but for those across Russia, the former Soviet Union and even western Europe,'' Sivulsky said.
As well as restricting the activities of mainstream churches, the religion law threw other groups into limbo, including the Salvation Army which is fighting to renew its registration in Moscow.
Former President Clinton stressed the importance of religious and other freedoms during a June 2000 summit with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Russia's Orthodox church has rejected talk of oppression, saying the law is justified to stop dangerous sects flooding the spiritual vacuum created by 70 years of Communist rule.
Founded in 1872 in the United States, the Witnesses are so called for their belief that Jehovah is the true name of God. They refuse to salute any national flag or serve in the armed forces but are perhaps best known for their ban on blood transfusions for believers.
The sect's goal is the establishment of God's kingdom, which it believes will emerge after Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil which the Bible's Book of Revelation says will mark the end of the world. (posted 23 February 2001)
MOSCOW COURT THROWS OUT PROSECUTOR'S CASE AGAINST JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
by Jim Heintz,
Associated Press, 23 February 2001
A Moscow court on Friday threw out a prosecutor's case attempting to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses in the capital, a decision hailed by a defense attorney as a strong move for religious tolerance.
Applause and tears broke out in the crowd of about 50 people who listened to the reading of the decision, which also called for the prosecutor's office to pay 18,000 rubles (dlrs 650) to experts who had been called in the case.
''We are crying tears of happiness,'' said a Jehovah's Witnesses member who did not give her name. ''I lived through the period when we were banned ... I did not want to repeat it.''
The Moscow city prosecutor's office had been trying to outlaw the Moscow branch of the U.S.-based church, using a provision in the Russian law on religion that allows courts to ban religious groups found guilty of inciting hatred or intolerant behavior.
The trial began in September 1998 but was recessed six months later to give an expert panel a chance to study the group's publications.
The panel was instructed to search for evidence to back up the prosecutors' claim that the group destroyed families, fostered hatred and threatened lives. But the city's Golovinsky district court refused the prosecutor's request.
''We have a clear statement by the court that the courtroom is not a place for theological debate,'' said John Burns, an attorney for the Jehovah's Witnesses. ''It shows we have hope for an independent judiciary in Moscow because this court has come down with a very strong decision.''
Russia's courts often have been criticized as biased toward prosecutors.
The court's reasoning in the decision was not immediately known. Only the basic decision was read out on Friday and defense attorney Galina Krylova said the defense team had not yet seen the full decision. Court officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The prosecutor's office has two weeks to appeal, but the Interfax news agency quoted prosecutor Tatyana Kondratyeva as saying she needed to study the ruling in detail, and ''perhaps I'll agree with what's said there.''
The Jehovah's Witnesses have alleged that Russia's religion law has been used to restrict churches other than Russia's biggest, long-established faiths. The law enshrines Orthodox Christianity as the country's predominant religion and pledges respect for Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, but places restrictions on other groups.
In the event of a victory for the prosecution, the capital's estimated
10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses would no longer have had the right to hold public
services, rent property or distribute literature in Moscow.
(posted 23 February 2001)
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