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Widespread harassment of Jehovah's Witnesses

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARRESTED IN FEBRUARY 2010   
from Press Service of Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 26 February 2010

In February 2010 there were a number of arrests of members of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization.

On 1 February 2010 in the village of Uva (Udmurtia republic) two women Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested by police officers while performing evangelistic activity; without identifying themselves the officers demanded documents from them. The women were roughly forced to get into a vehicle and taken to the police department, where they were interrogated for several hours. Police officers behaved very crudely, threatened, made accusations of committing criminal activity (fraud, theft), and forced them to admit they did it; they were forbidden to make a telephone call. Personal items and a telephone were taken from one of the arrestees and the number of her bank account was copied. As a result of the persistent questioning one of them became sick. The detainees were released 3 and 5 hours after their arrest.

On 3 February 2010 in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod province, Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested during evangelism. They were taken to the police department, fingerprinted, and photographed without a protocol being drawn up.  Religious literature was confiscated, and explanations of the means of obtaining the confiscated literature and of the reasons for visiting apartments were elicited. The police emphasized that this was not an interrogation but an investigation and thus the detainees were not permitted a defense attorney. In addition, the husband of one of the detainees, who came to the department for her, was not permitted entry.

On 4 February 2010 in a city settlement of Seryshevo, Amur province, two Jehovah's Witnesses were telling people about their religious convictions. A man came out of an apartment and identified himself as an FSB officer. The man demanded documents from the Jehovah's Witnesses. One of the Jehovah's Witnesses showed her passport and left. The other was arrested by a military patrol that the FSB officer had called. At the command post the detainee refused to present his passport and thus he was taken to the internal affairs department where explanations were elicited from him.

On 4 February 2010 in Gubkin, Belgorod province, one Jehovah's Witness was arrested during evangelism and taken to the police station. He was asked to display the contents of his bag as if this were evidence of a previous theft. At the police department a protocol was drawn up concerning administrative violations of the law by annoying citizens and imposing religious convictions, on the basis of a law in the Belgorod province, and explanations of his personal life and religious activity were elicited from the detainee.

On 6 February 2010 in Kharovsk, Vologda province, three Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested during evangelism and taken to the police station. They were required to write explanations and copies of their passports and documents within their passports were made. Protocols were drawn up concerning administrative violations of the law for "annoying citizens for purposes of religious agitation," citing the law of Vologda province. Police officers ignored a report that one of the detainees felt sick because of a diabetes attack.

On 6 February 2010 in Kharovsk, Vologda province, two Jehovah's Witnesses (both crippled) were arrested while they were explaining their religious convictions to people. The police officers did not identify themselves or explain the bases for the arrests. The believers were taken to the police department where written explanations were taken, copies of which they were not given. Protocols also were drawn up. Despite the believers' references to their physical infirmities, the detention lasted about 4 hours.

On 8 February 2010 in the village of Altaiskoe, Altai territory, agents of the prosecutor's office arrived at the home of a woman Jehovah's Witness. Since she refused to go with them, they orally scheduled for her a meeting on the same day in the investigative division of the prosecutor's office. The woman did not show up. Then agents of the prosecutor's office again arrived at her home. Despite protests on the part of relatives, an investigator of the prosecutor's office entered the house and insistently demanded that the woman go with them. At the prosecutor's office the woman was not given an explanation of her rights, despite her request, nor was she provided an attorney or permitted to have a consultation by phone. The agents of the prosecutor's office took down the explanations which the woman signed as a result, she said, of the pressure put on her.

On 8 February 2010 in Neberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan republic, two women Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested by police officers while conducting evangelism. According to the detainees, police officers responded to their request for copies of the protocols with threats.

On 10 February 2010 in Karachevo, Briansk province, two women Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested. Two hours before their arrest police officers had arrived at their home, who were interested in learning whether the women had observed a theft in the house across the street. They conducted an interview, after which the Jehovah's Witnesses told the police about their religious convictions. An hour later the women went to a house which, on the request of an acquaintance, they were taking care of while the owner was away. When the Jehovah's Witnesses approached the house, police officers exited a vehicle and rushed up to them and ordered them to get into the vehicle. To the question of whether a protocol of the arrest would be drawn up, the police officer said that this was not an arrest; they simply wanted to get acquainted and thus the women were taken to the police department and fingerprinted and photographed. The detainees were permitted to get their passports from home. Explanations were taken from the detainees at the police department.

On 10 February 2010 in Krasnoufimsk, Sverdlovsk province, two women Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested during evangelism. At the police department copies of their passports were made and their personal things were inspected and confiscated. According to the detainees, they were refused access to an attorney and they were not given an explanation of their rights. Police officers stated that they were not inspecting their personal things but literature of an extremist nature. To the detainees' question of which law they were suspected of violating, they said the answer given them was that they were inciting inter-religious strife. At the same time, besides an explanation they were not provided documents that were drawn up (protocols of arrest, inspection, and confiscation).

On 10 February in Cheliabinsk, two Jehovah's Witnesses along with the seven-year-old son of one of them were conducting evangelism. They were arrested by police officers in civilian clothing. The detainees were photographed against the background of an entrance. At the police department religious literature was confiscated from them and a protocol of confiscation was drawn up. According to them, they were not given copies of the protocols of the interrogation. A copy of her passport and certificate of medical intervention was taken from one of the detainees

On 12 February 2010 in Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan republic, a police officer arrived at the home of one woman Jehovah's Witness. Since she was away, the police officer asked her husband whether his wife reads literature of religious contents. When he caught sight of literature in the apartment, the officer demanded that it be given to him, threatening that otherwise a search would be conducted. When the woman returned home, she was arrested. At the police department she was interrogated, according to her words, at first calmly but later they began shouting, and cursing and threatening a trial. To her request to be given a copy of the explanations she said she got the answer: "you can request them at the prosecutor's with attorneys." Only after the woman signed the explanations was she given a protocol of a voluntary surrender of literature which was composed unclearly and not signed by the detainee.

On 13 February 2010 in Alatyr, Chuvash republic, two women Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested and taken to the police department during evangelism. Their documents were examined. Police officers claimed that the women possessed forbidden literature and that they would conduct a criminal case on this matter and they requested that the detainees show them the publications they had. The Jehovah's Witnesses turned over the literature. The police did not draw up a protocol. The detainees were released.

On 15 February 2010 in Petrovsk, Saratov province, a Jehovah's Witness was arrested on the street and taken to the police station. He said that the police officer was interested in how many Jehovah's Witnesses attended meetings and who was their leader and where was he. In addition, the police officer asked for literature about the organization. A protocol was not composed.

On 15 February 2010 in Satka, Cheliabinsk province, a Jehovah's Witness was arrested during evangelism. At the watch post he was asked to take personal items out of a bag and they were examined. The detainee also was fingerprinted and photographed against his will. Police officers learned the address of the detainee, to which they subsequently came often.

On 17 February 2010 in Kirsanov, Tambov province, police officers arrested a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses during evangelism. At the police department the arrestees' possession of religious literature was ascertained. After this a comparison of this literature with a list of publications ruled extremist was made. The literature was confiscated, a protocol of confiscation was drawn up, finger prints were taken, and explanations were elicited. According to the detainees, they were not given copies of the documents that were composed nor were explanations of the arrest made.

On 17 February 2010 in the settlement of Gluboky, Rostov province, law enforcement agents arrived at a Jehovah's Witnesses' "Kingdom Hall," during a worship service. They demanded that the meeting cease and they took those present to the police department, where the detainees (14 persons) were questioned. On the basis of information obtained from the believers, law enforcement agents forbade the believers to hold worship services, citing an "order of the president prohibiting the Jehovah's Witnesses organization in Russia."

On 18 February 2010 in the city of Kinel, Samara province, two women Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested during evangelism and taken to the police department. At the police department the detainee's documents were examined, passport data were taken down, and fingerprints and photographs were made. Also the contents of the detainees' purses were examined but nothing was confiscated.

On 18 February 2010 in Tambov a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses visited a woman who expressed her desire to learn more about the Bible. During the visit to the woman, the believers were arrested by police officers and taken to the internal affairs department of Tambov, where explanations were taken from them and a protocol was drawn up.

On 22 February 2010 in Penza, at 22:30, an agent of the prosecutor's office arrived at the home of a Jehovah's Witness; he roused the residents and demanded that the believer answer questions about the distribution of publications and information about fellow believers. The agent of the prosecutor's office took written explanations.

On 22 February 2010 in the settlement of Tselina, Rostov province, two Jehovah's Witnesses were describing their religious convictions to people where they were arrested by police officers. At the police department explanations were taken from the detainees.  (tr. by PDS, posted 10 March 2010)

Russian original posted on Religiia v svetskom obshchestve site, 9 March 2010

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Jehovah's Witnesses organize public protest campaign

ALL-RUSSIAN ACTION BY WITNESSES.
Jehovah's Witnesses began distribution throughout Russia of 12 million pamphlets about persecution of their organization in Russian federation 26 February
by Aleksei Mdaliutin
Portal-credo.ru, 26 February 2010

A press conference titled "All-Russian action in defense of freedom of religious confession" was devoted to this unprecedented action encompassing all components of the Russian federation and uniting almost 150,000 volunteers from the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization, at the Independent Press Center in Moscow on 26 February. It was conducted by representatives of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia Yaroslav Sivulsky and Aleksei Nazarychev, as well as the director of the Institute for Human Rights, Lev Levinson. The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Liudmila Alekseeva, who was included in the announcement, was unable to attend since she was meeting with the Council on Human Rights and Institutions of Civil Society of the presidential administration of RF, where, incidentally, the current persecutions of the Witnesses were being discussed. The head of the council, Ella Pamfilova, even decided to appeal officially in their defense to the procurator general of the country.

Opening the meeting with the press, Lev Levinson, who arrived by metro, shared his observation: many passengers of the Moscow subway were reading the pamphlets which they evidently received at the metro entrance. The reading engaged them and few failed to read the pamphlets all the way to the end. On four pages, printed in Germany, according to introductory material, compared the persecution of Witnesses in the Soviet Union and discrimination against them in contemporary Russia. Every page is headed with a quotation from speeches by Dmitry Medvedev condemning political repressions, including repression on the basis of confessional identity. Fifteen years ago, many veteran Jehovah's Witnesses, who had been imprisoned or exiled for their faith in soviet times, received a special red booklet, "certificate of rehabilitation." Now people with such certificates in their pockets are being charged as "extremists," and the authorities throughout the country are again hounding them into the underground. The post-soviet rehabilitation of Jehovah's Witnesses has "turned to dust."

Lev Levinson recalled that Jehovah's Witnesses (who are often called "Jehovists" in public) have existed in Russia more than 100 years, and their history of relations with the Russian state is broad, although extremely complex. Today, the rights advocate noted, "persecution of them on the part of the state is occurring under the banner of struggle with extremism." The beginning of this persecution was made by two decisions of the supreme courts, respectively, of Russia and the Altai republic, adopted in December of last year and January of this year, respectively.  Thirty-four publications of the Witnesses were ruled by these courts to be "extremist," which, in Levinson's opinion, will lead in the near future "to the whole organization being ruled extremist." Although quite recently, it seems, in 1996, on the basis of a presidential ruling, adherents of this confession were officially rehabilitated and their good name in Russia was returned to them.

The Russian rights defense community has supported the Jehovah's Witnesses, who are being persecuted in an organized manner; they are being shut down, slandered, arrested, beaten, and torched in practically all regions of Russia. Activists of the "Memorial" Society, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, and other rights advocacy organizations have sent statements to the president and the procurator general. Special attention by the soldier's mothers has been given to the Witnesses' problems connecting with the fact that it is only this religious organizations that has consistently made use of the right to alternative civilian service, guaranteed by the constitution, despite its clearly "repressive" character.

Lev Levinson formulated the legal essence of the current persecution of the Witnesses as:  "a perverted interpretation of antiextremist legislation." From the rather absurd sentences of Russian courts, in whose materials this organization often is called a "sect," it is evident that the basic claim against it is its "unfriendly attitude toward other churches." In Taganrog the Witnesses congregation was liquidated also because it allegedly conducted agitation in favor of refusing military service. Meanwhile, the right to such a refusal is directly protected by the constitution of the Russian federation, but the Supreme Court, confirming the decision of the Rostov court, "seems that it did not know this." According to the information of the rights advocate, the entire Russian police force is armed with lists of the "extremist" literature of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and it is actively arresting people for possessing it. To be sure, this has happened in the main in the provinces and small cities and so the persecution still does not have a total character.

A representative of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) in Russia, Aleksei Nazarychev, reported that the current action of distributing pamphlets is supposed to last three days, but the pamphlets have already run out and probably 27 February will be the last day of the action. One of the leaders of the Russian Jehovah's Witnesses acknowledged that distribution of such titles is not characteristic of their organization's methods, because it is "not evangelism but an appeal to the civic sentiments of people." However one of the main principles of JW is obedience to the law. After numerous attempts to defend their rights in the courts, which now in Russia have not provided effective protection, and after appeals to the president and in the news media, the Witnesses have been forced to appeal directly to the citizens of Russia. Instilling in society a negative attitude toward "sectarians," Nazarychev thinks, is socially harmful and will lead to dire consequences, because the level of aggression in Russian society is very high. Persecution of JW is being presented by the authorities and the media as some kind of "legal," "secure" channel for venting this aggression. "Believers continually have to face this aggression on the part of citizens and law enforcement agencies," the speaker noted.

Another representative of the Administrative Center of JW in Russia, who participated in the press conference, Yaroslav Sivulsky, gave a more detailed report about the Supreme Court decision of 8 December of last year and about the current situation of his religious organization. At the present time in RF there are 408 registered local JW religious organizations, each of which is participating in today's action. It is interesting that in the first day of its conduct in Moscow there were no confirmed cases of the arrest of people distributing the pamphlets, although there were such cases in the provinces.

Jehovah's Witnesses, who are famous for their tight organization, which gives occasion for their opponents, like Professor Dvorkin, to call JW "one of the most totalitarian sects,"  have again confirmed their own "militancy," managing to keep secret to the last minute the action they were preparing and catching the Russian authorities unawares. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 March 2010)

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Russian Scientology case still unresolved

RUSSIA APPEALS DECISION OF STRASBOURG COURT IN CASE OF SCIENTOLOGY IN NIZHNEKAMSK
Interfax, 25 February 2010

There still has been no final decision in the case of Nizhnekamsk Scientologists whom the European Court on Human Rights defended.

Russia has appealed the decision of the court in Strasbourg that was issued in October 2009, the vice-chairman of the Supreme Court of Tatarstan for Civil Cases, Marat Khairullin, reported at a press conference in Kazan. He recalled that the group of Scientologists tried to register in Nizhnekamsk as a religious organization, but it was refused. The Scientologists turned to the Nizhnekamsk city court and their request was not satisfied. In its turn the Supreme Court of Tatarstan left the decision of the city court unchanged, and the Scientologists filed suit against Russia in Strasbourg.

The Strasbourg court, proceeding from the principle of freedom of religious confession, ruled the decisions of the city and republican courts to be not in accordance with the norms of international law.

At the present time, a representative of Scientology has again turned to the Nizhnekamsk city court with a request for a review of the case on the basis of newly discovered circumstances, namely the decision of the European court.

"If after a review of Russia's appeal to the higher instance the decision of the European Court for Human Rights still remains unchanged, then the Nizhnekamsk city court will review the case again," Khairullin explained.

Meanwhile, he said, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian federation also can challenge the decision regarding registration of this society.

On 1 October 2009 the Strasbourg court required Russia to pay financial compensation of 20,000 Euros for the denial of registration to Scientologists in Nizhnekamsk and Surgut. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 February 2010)

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