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Court deprives Pentecostal mother of parental rights

BASHKORTOSTAN:  PARISHIONER OF PROTESTANT CHURCH DEPRIVED OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AND THEN ALSO FREEDOM FOR FIDELITY TO HER FAITH
Portal-credo.ru, 10 August 2010

The Davlekanovo regional court of Bashkortostan deprived 27-year-old Alla Fedorova of parental rights with respect to her five-year-old daughter, Azaliia, because she is a parishioner of an evangelical church. Alla, who has been living in Moscow along with her daughter and husband, learned about this decision of the Davlekanovo regional court by chance; she had not even been informed that there was a hearing on this case that was important for their family, the press service of the Russian Associated Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith reported on 10 August.

Alla's former husband submitted to the court a petition regarding deprivation of parental rights. He had not been paying alimony and had not communicated with the daughter for several years. However the real initiator of the proceedings was Alla's mother, Nedezhda Petrovna, a businesswoman who is well known in the city. After the divorce from her husband, Alla, having a small daughter, began attending an evangelical church, which displeased her mother, who was biased against the "sect." Upon her mother's request, Alla talked with an Orthodox priest and psychologist, who did not find anything dangerous or pathological in her conduct.

After the court's decision became known, the young mother, who had moved to Moscow and entered a new marriage, turned for help to the Russian Associated Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith, the Public Chamber of RF, the plenipotentiary for children's rights of RF, and the prosecutor's office of Bashkiriia. On 3 August there was a review of the case in which a multitude of violations were discovered, and the court's decision regarding denial of parental rights was rescinded.

During a visit to her mother's, Alla was given psychotropic drugs and subjected to forcible detention. Since 5 August the parents have been keeping Alla in their home and her husband is not permitted to see her. Alla's daughter, Azaliia, is at an unknown location. Alla's husband, Andrei, turned for help to the police of the city of Davlekanovo, who actually refused him any help.

"Davlekanovo is a small town where everybody knows one another," Andrei says. "It seems that here everybody is connected to one another like in some kind of ant hill; the laws are completely inoperative here and nobody can help us. One gets the feeling that police officers specifically are playing for time and do not want to solve the problem. I am very distressed for Alla. Her mother even threatened to kill her daughter, the "sectarian." After all that has happened I do not know what to expect from her."  (tr. by PDS, posted 10 August 2010)


RELIGION OF A NONTRADITIONAL ORIENTATION
by Sergei Bychkov
Moskovskii komsomolets, 7 July 2010

In the republic of Bashkortostan, in the city of Davlekanovo, lives the Fedorov family. The parents raised two daughters, who married and had children. The older one lives apart from her parents, but for the younger one, Alla, married life went bad. She lived with her husband, Ilgiz Kulsarin, a little more than a year, and in 2006 they split up. Alla raised her daughter Azaliia. After the divorce she lived with her parents. She worked diligently and had her own, albeit small, business. The husband moved away to Ufa and rarely visited his daughter and paid child support occasionally. The quiet life continued after the divorce for almost three years, until Alla began attending the house of worship of local protestants.

The mother, a powerful woman, was indignant. It was bad enough that her daughter attended prayer meetings, but much worse that she began taking the granddaughter with her.  Outcries began. At first the mother tried to convince Alla that she had chosen "an incorrect faith," and tried by all means to disabuse her. It was a trivial situation. It is sufficient to recall the life of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev caves lavra. He also came from a substantial family and his mother was categorically opposed to the monastic life he chose. She often beat the youth, but she was not able to persuade him thereby. The son became the greatest Russian saint and founder of Russian monasticism.

Since Alla did not respond to her mother's requests, Nedezhda decided to resort to harsher measures. She delivered her daughter to a psychiatric hospital. Alla describes this:  "When I was there they did not do any kind of treatment. This was the neurological department. When my mother tried to place me by force in the psychiatric department, there was a phone call from the prosecutor's office. After this they asked me to place myself under the observation of Dr. Vladimir Panov in the neurology department. I signed a paper that said that I was acting on my own desire, simply to calm my parents down. I wanted to show that I was a normal person and not a zombie or addled by sedatives, as they thought. I frequently talked with the doctor and I considered that he even was on my side. He said several times: 'Your mama is mistaken to think that the problem can be solved with a doctor's help.' He assured me that after my discharge there would be no records that cast doubt on my psychological health, since I was in the neurology department."

After the hospital, Alla took her daughter and moved to Perm, where a congregation of protestants took her in and helped her get an apartment and find work. But her mother sought for the recalcitrant daughter and with the help of her former husband got the return of her granddaughter. Soon Kulsarin sent a suit to the regional court of the city of Davlekanovo for depriving Alla of her parental rights. Judge T.R. Zaineev and Prosecutor LV. Zubareva had no doubt as to the correctness of the suit and on 7 April of this year issued a decision depriving Alla of her parental rights. And all the time she was not informed about the judicial session. In the trial there was some expert on sects and also some document from a psychiatric hospital that indicated: "Dependant personality disorder." What kind of mysterious disease is this and who made this diagnosis? The judicial decision reeks with the heavy soviet odor of authoritarianism: "In 2009 the defendant was drawn into the sect of 'Pentecostals,' and from that time she ceased permitting all relatives access to the child, including her own mother, and she gave substantial amounts of money without permission of her mother for donations, and she began behaving improperly and disappearing at night . . . .The plaintiff explained in judicial session that his former spouse from the beginning of 2009 began attending the 'Pentecostal' sect and did not look after the child and left the child with her mother. He has worked in Ufa and paid child support regularly."

This short paragraph from the judicial decision is filled with contradictions. How could Alla stop "permitting all relatives access to the child, including her own mother," if she lived with her parents? Alla's former husband worked in Ufa. How could he know that she supposedly "did not look after the child"? What kind of strange notions did the judge have about Pentecostals? And why is the very name of one of the branches of protestantism put into quotation marks? Perhaps the Davlekanovo attorneys think that it is a case of some superstitious sect? What kind of strange hints are there with regard to the nocturnal disappearances of Alla? Perhaps the judge and prosecutor think that Pentecostals conduct at night some kind of vigils like khlysts? And therefore the defendant behaved "improperly." Why is there no indication that Alla herself earned a living for herself and daughter and could independently decide how much money to donate to the congregation and how much to keep for expenses?

The court could hardly be bothered by this and many other questions. The decision was swift, despite the fact that Alla herself was not even invited to the trial. Apparently they decided that she was incompetent since she had been treated in a psychiatric hospital. Therefore the court decided that it had adequate basis to deprive Alla of her parental rights and to turn over the five-year-old daughter to the former spouse. Alla recalls:  "On the day of my discharge, my sister and her husband and our mother came for me. The whole drive they made fun of me. It was clear that they were not going to let go of me. Mama hid my documents and said that if I tried to go to the 'sect,' they would commit me to the psychiatric hospital forever. Although my sister supported mama, later when I called her she said that she would go to court as a witness and would say that my former husband Kulsarin was a bad father. She said that mama is driven by revenge and anger."

Fortunately, Alla is a rather sober and steady person. She is not about to act illegally. She has already turned to the plenipotentiary for children's rights, Pavel Astakhov. The plenipotentiary for children's rights along with the prosecutor has appealed the decision of the Davlekanovo court. (tr. by PDS, posted 10 August 2010)


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Former employee of church suspected in bombing

THREE PARTICIPANTS IN PLANNING EXPLOSION IN ZAPOROZHE CHURCH ARRESTED
Interfax-religiia, 9 August

Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Anatoly Mogilev reported the arrest of three persons who participated in arranging the blast in the church of the Holy Protection in Zaporozhe.

At the time of a meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in Kiev he suggested that, according to preliminary information, the explosion was connected with revenge, the press service of the head of state reports.

As Ukrainian news media reported earlier, the suspects in organizing the murder include a former church sexton, a relative, and another employee of the church.  (tr. by PDS, posted 9 August 2010)


SUSPECT'S ATTORNEY NOT PERMITTED ACCESS TO CLIENT
Interfax-religiia, 9 August 2010

Larisa Shevchuk, the attorney for Evgeny Fedorchenko, the sexton of the church of the Holy Protection of Zaporozhe who was arrested by police on suspicion of bombing the church, declared that for four days now she has not been able to meet with the defendant.

In an interview with "Interfax," the suspect's attorney, who was hired by the church community, stated that on Monday morning she made a routine attempt to meet with E. Fedorchenko, but again she did not get permission from the investigators.

She said that law enforcement agencies promise to make a final decision on this matter toward evening, supposedly after a joint conference of staff members of the prosecutor's office and police.

The parents of the 25-year-old E. Fedorchenko and the parishioners of the church of the Holy Protection reported to the news agency that they are concerned about his fate. He was arrested 4 August and since then, they say, nothing is known about him. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 August 2010)


NOBODY BELIEVES SEXTON GUILTY OF BOMBING
Religious Information Service of Ukraine, 6 August 2010

The chief suspect is employee who was fired for stealing parishioners' money. But neither the rector nor the priests believe that he pnated the bomb, "Religion in Ukraine" reports.

A former sexton of the church, 25-year-old Anton and his brother Denis were arrested on suspicion of arranging the terrorist act. They supposedly collected contributions from parishioners and spent them on themselves. "When the priest of the church learned about such fraud, he tried to punish them. In revenge the defrauders arranged the bombing. It is possible that their goal was to cause fear, but they just overdid it with the explosives. Now these two men have been arrested," a source at the Zaporozhe police department said. The police said that Anton is the chief suspect.

"Anton was fired several months ago after we noticed that he had embezzled small sums from donations of parishioners," the priests of the church of the Holy Protection said. "Now it has become known that he has been arrested. But we do not believe that he could bomb the church. He was still a quiet, indecisive fellow."

And many of his neighbors also do not believe Anton's guilt. "The police came to my place and inquired about the detainee, Anton," a superintendent Grigory Solovei told "Religion in Ukraine." "I gave him a good character reference; after all he never disturbed public order." The church's rector, Leonid Sheremet, was direct: "Anton really was fired for cause, which I don't want to talk about now. But I do not believe his involvement in the explosion."

"You know, I was a witness in their apartment on the weekend," one of Anton's neighbors said. "The whole forensic laboratory came to their home! Now his grandmother Galia sits on a bench in front of the house all day and cries."

The grandmother thinks that the police are wrong: "They arrested not only Anton and his brother Denis, but also his mother, Olga. She was going to buy water, and some man from the law enforcement agencies came up behind her and then she got into his car and she has not been seen since. I went about town to ask for money for an attorney; I collected 500 hryvnias." The police department refused to give official comment. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 August 2010)


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Orthodox Muscovites acknowledge that current disasters are result of sin

CLERGY AND LAITY ASK PATRIARCH KIRILL TO DECLARE A FAST AND NATIONWIDE REPENTANCE FOR STRUGGLE WITH HEAT
Interfax-religiia, 6 August 2010

Clerics and laity of Moscow diocese sent to Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill a request to declare a three-day fast in connection with the natural disasters.

"As you correctly noted, Your Holiness, the cause of all the disasters (and the current drought is no exception) is our sinfulness, our apostasy from God, our lack of heartfelt desire to repent and change our lives. With great joy we have begun to fulfill your blessing to perform deeds of human kindness, prayers, and repentance that are necessary for any Christian," the letter delivered Friday to "Interfax-Religiia" says.

In the opinion of the appeal's authors, "prayer services and personal repentance are unconditionally necessary, but they an insufficient means for rectifying the situation that has developed."

"We think that it is necessary to bring nationwide repentance because this is not really a matter of the guilt of a single person but of the whole apostate nation. We will not succumb to temptation and accuse any specific person, because we, the authors of this text, also are sinful people, but we insist upon our request," the document says.

The authors of the appeal recall that in the Orthodox tradition there is a rule: Seek answers to all questions in the Bible. "In sacred scripture there are examples in Old Testament times when a fast of repentance was conducted . . . for which we request your blessing, and we also ask you to address this initiative to the entire plenitude of the Russian Orthodox church," the clergy and laity of Moscow diocese write to Patriarch Kirill.

The collection of signatures beneath the appeal is continuing at the present time on the Internet and it is also being conducted in churches of the Moscow diocese.  Already several hundred signatures of clerics and laity have been collected. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 August 2010)

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Baptists punished for conducting Sunday school

MILLEROVO BAPTIST CHURCH IN ROSTOV PROVINCE AWAITS JUST DECISION OF COURT
by Pavel Belkov
Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, 23 July 2010

The presbyter of the church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of the city of Millerovo in Rostov province, Roman Panasenko, appealed in the court of second instance a decision of a municipal judge of the first judicial district of Millerovo region of Rostov province, E.A. Bugaeva, holding the church administratively responsible for alleged illegal conduct of non-profit activity without special permission (license). The judicial session in the court of second instance, scheduled for 21 July, was postponed to a later time.

The basis for opening the case were the results of an inquiry conducted by the district prosecutor of Millerovo, A.V. Bukin, into the church's placing of an announcement in the "Millerovo Yarmarka" newspaper and the organization in the church of a Christian Bible study circle and a "Future" club, through which the church conducted religious education of its adherents by means of Bible study. In essence both the circle and the club functioned as a Sunday school in the church.

The materials of the case show clearly that the local religious organization of the Evangelical Christian-Baptist church of Millerovo carried out its activity in accordance with its charter, and the circle and club created within it without the status of a legal entity were not professional religious institutions subject to licensing in accordance with article 19 of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations," but serve for the teaching of religion and religious education of the adherents of the church. They are not institutions of advanced education, as the judge concluded in her decision. The teachers were members of the church, that is, the education was conducted by nonprofessional teachers. The invitation through the news media was the legal right of the church "to disseminate religious convictions" (article 3 of federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations").

The prosecutor and the court did not consider that the right of a religious organization to teach its followers is an inalienable right that flows from the right to freedom of conscience guaranteed by both the constitution of the Russian federation (art. 28) and the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms (art. 9). In addition, art. 6 of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" proclaims as one of the basic indicators of a religious association "teaching of religion and religious education of its adherents." The law does not regulate the forms of teaching. It can be carried out in game form (drawing, sculpture, etc) as well as in the reading of sermons, conducting discussions, seminars, and lectures.

The court and prosecutor mistakenly categorized the actions of the church in teaching religion as educational activity that requires a license. The court did not take into account the decision of the Judicial College on Civil Affairs of the Supreme Court of Russia, rendered on 10 June 2008, in a similar case involving the "United Methodist Church" local religious organization of the city of Smolensk. In that case, the judicial instances of the city of Smolensk tried to liquidate the Sunday school of the Methodist church under the pretense that it was conducting its educational activity without a license. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 August 2010)

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Another Jehovah's Witnesses case to human rights court

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES OF GORNO-ALTAISK SUBMIT NEW COMPLAINT OVER ACCUSATIONS OF EXTREMISM TO EUROPEAN COURT
Portal-credo.ru, 6 August 2010

Jehovah's Witnesses of Gorno-Altaisk, having exhausted means of judicial defense within Russia, have been forced to turn to the international court, the press service of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia reported on 5 August.

On 23 July 2010, the local "Gorno-Altaisk" religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses submitted a complaint to the European Court for Human Rights, in connection with the ruling by the Supreme Court of the Altai republic finding 18 Christian publications "extremist."

It is noteworthy that only the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses from Gorno-Altaisk was permitted by the republican court to defend the issues of the "Watchtower" and "Awake" magazines from the accusations of "extremism," and it did not allow representatives of the author and publisher to participate in the case, claiming that their rights are not being affected. After three months, Roskomnadzor, citing inter alia this decision, annulled the permissions for distribution of these journals throughout the country.

Because of the decision reached in Gorno-Altaisk, active Jehovah's Witnesses are now subjected to continuous pressures. In Russia there are 160,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, which is almost twice the size of the population of Gorno-Altaisk. The rights of 900,000 regular readers of "Watchtower" and "Awake" have also been affected.  (tr. by PDS, posted 6 August 2010)

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