JEHOVISTS FINED FOR UNSANCTIONED DEMONSTRATION IN ROSTOV
Since the beginning of 2015, a substantial increase in proselytizing activity of one of the largest religious organizations—Jehovah's Witnesses—has been noticed on the territory of Rostov province.
In particular, Jehovah's Witnesses activists have sent to the administration of the city of Rostov-on-Don written notification of the conduct of public events in the period from 12 January to 31 December 2015 on the territory of several districts of the city, which are aimed at large-scale recruitment into the structure of the organization.
However, the Jehovists began large-scale conduct of promotional demonstrations without going through the procedure of approval. On 17 February, the Center for Combating Extremism of the GUMVD of Russia for Rostov province put a stop to conducting on Station Square of the Don capital a public event by the Jehovah's Witnesses organization in which promotional materials that have been banned by Roskomnadzor were used.
As a result of additional investigation conducted by the prosecutor's office with respect to participants in the event (M.S. Churkina and Yu.S. Svetlakova) two cases of administrative violation of law on the basis of part 2, article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law of RF ("Violation of established procedure for conducting a meeting, rally, demonstration, march, or picketing") were opened. In addition, two official warnings about the impermissibility of violations of the federal law "On combating extremist activity" were issued to said functionaries of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
On 27 March, the Zheleznodorozhnyi district court of the city of Rostov-on-Don ordered an administrative penalty in the form of an administrative fine of 20,000 rubles for each participant in the unsanctioned Jehovist event. On 12 May that decision was left without change by the Rostov provincial court.
Mass conduct of such populist events by Jehovah's Witnesses in Rostov-on-Don and Rostov province is probably the result of the conduct of a judicial proceeding initiated by the SChGU MVD of Russia for YuFO [Investigating Division of the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Southern Federal District] with respect to 16 functionaries of the MRO [Local Religious Organization] of Jehovah's Witnesses of Taganrog, which was ruled extremist and prohibited by a decision of the Rostov provincial court of 11 September 2009. The goal of the public actions is the restoration of the image of the religious organization and also an increase in the membership of the organization, whose numbers were substantially decreased as a result of the criminal prosecution of the religious leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses on the charge of committing the crimes specified in parts 1 and 2 of article 282.2 and part 4 of article 150 of the Criminal Code of the RF.
An analysis of the focus of the public events of the Jehovah's Witnesses indicates that along with the goals of disseminating information regarding said organization, it also has a clearly expressed proselytizing focus, including the persistent popularization of Jehovist teaching and mass attraction of neophytes into their structure.
It should also be noted that the ideology of Jehovah's Witnesses contradicts the historical and religious traditions of Russia. Its promoters preach refusal to perform civic obligations (service in army, payment of taxes, etc.). Leaders of the structure forbid their adepts to accept medical care in the form of blood transfusion, which leads to death or causes severe damage to their health.
Current activity by various representations of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization is associated with systematic extremist manifestations in connection with which in a number of regions (Taganrog in Rostov province, Samara, Gorno-Altaisk in the republic of Altai) local representations of the organization have been ruled to be extremist and been liquidated. In various regions of Russia, about 100 titles of informational materials of the Jehovah's Witnesses have been entered into the federal list of extremist materials of the Russian Ministry of Justice. In addition, on 3 December of this year [sic—last year, tr.] the Supreme Court of the RF ruled the Jehovah's Witnesses website, www.jw.org, to be extremist, as well as a number of literature sources of the organization that were posted on it. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 May 2015)
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FINED FOR DISTRIBUTING RELIGIOUS LITERATURE ON CITY STREETS IN ROSTOV PROVINCE
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 20 May 2015
On 12 May 2015 the Rostov provincial court confirmed the decision of the Zheleznodorozhnyi district court of Rostov-on-Don that was issued on 2 March 2015 with respect to members of the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, M.S. Churikina and Yu.S. Svetlakova, who were witnessing on the streets of Rostov-on-Don.
On 15 February 2015, the women were witnessing in Rostov-on-Don not far from a bus station and they were giving out religious literature arrayed on a portable stand. Their activity was considered to be unsanctioned picketing.
"They organized and conducted picketing in public without submitting notification about a public event in accordance with established procedure; that is, they were expressing their opinion without processing and using amplification devices by means of an informational stand on which were posted inscriptions: 'Is the Bible outdated,' 'Take for free,' 'Ask in your own language.' On the stand there also were placed brochures: 'Is the Bible outdated' and 'How to love your work,' on which was indicated the website on the Internet of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization, 'jw.org,' which has been entered in the register of domain names, and which contain information whose dissemination within the Russian federation [is prohibited?—tr.]," the text of the court's decision says.
The court found the women guilty of committing an administrative violation of law in accordance with part 2 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law (Organizing or conducting a public event without submitting in established procedure notification of conducting a public event) and assigned each of them a fine of 20,000 rubles.
It is noteworthy that the decision of the court says directly that what was determinative in issuing the fine was the fact of the appearance in the text of the brochures a reference to the Jehovah's Witnesses' website which is, in our view, illegally prohibited: "On their stand there were books not only of religious contents, for example, 'How to love your work,' whose place was fixed in a determinative way and—what is most important—on the stand there was a reference to a website whose distribution within the Russian federation is prohibited." (tr. by PDS, posted 21 May 2015)
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