JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FINED 20,000
RUBLES IN NOVOCHERKASSK
But that did not stop them and
they continue to set up portable stands.
Members of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Novocherkassk were fined 20,000 rubles for illegal placement on the streets of the city of stands with religious literature. Believers tried to challenge the decision of the city court, but a provincial court left it in force.
The members of the organization who were preaching their doctrine began setting up portable stands with their religious literature in Novocherkassk. The hand made structures on the base of a pushcart are quickly transformed into beautiful information stands with pockets for placing magazines. The erection of one of these structures near a mall was found by the Plato court to be illegal.
The point is that such a form for distributing doctrine is illegal, since it is a religious event in a place not intended for such. "The conduct of such a public event requires prior coordination in the city administration, which they did not do," the prosecutor's office of Novocherkassk commented on the Jehovah's Witnesses' action. "In connection with this, police officers composed on the basis of the results of an inspection they conducted two reports concerning administrative violations of law with respect to two persons who organized the above indicated public event. During consideration of these reports, a Novocherkassk city court held the guilty persons administratively liable on the basis of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law of the RF, for conducting a public event without submitting appropriate notification in the established procedure, and they were given a punishment in the form of a fine of 20,000 rubles—10,000 for one citizen for planning and 10,000 for the other for participating.
The Jehovah's Witnesses tried to challenge this decision in a higher instance, but the provincial court left the decision of the Novocherkassk court in force.
However, these rather large fines did not stop the Jehovah's Witnesses, and they continued to witness on Moscow Street near other large city malls where there is a large flow of passersby. One of these portable stands was set up throughout June near the mall House of Daily Life. Near it a pretty woman, in the shade of trees, "stands guard," who willingly discusses salvation with everyone interested.
The Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization appeared in Russia in 1877, which was reported in one of their magazines, Watchtower, but it was officially registered only in 1913. In the soviet period, in the 1920s, Jehovah's Witnesses were subjected to persecution and shot along with preachers of other confessions. After the Great Patriotic War, in 1949 and in 1951, a large scale operation "North" was conducted, during which mass exiles of Jehovah's Witnesses and their family in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Far East were conducted. After this the activity of the organization was unheard of in the European territory of the USSR. In 1991, the Witnesses again appeared in Moscow and registered the organization Jehovah's Witnesses in USSR. And again the widespread dissemination of their doctrine on the territory of Russia began. Dozens of criminal cases under the "extremist" article began against the members of the organization in 2004. They were accused of inciting religious strife. One of such large cases was in Taganrog. A Rostov provincial court not only found the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist but it also liquidated the local congregation. In its turn, Roskomnadzor rescinded permission for distribution of the magazines Awake! and Watchtower on Russian territory.
Historians, sociologists, and religious studies experts treat Jehovah's Witnesses differently. Some consider their religion as a protestant movement, others as Adventists or as completely pseudo-Christian. Some Russian researchers even call them a sect.
The main administrative center of Jehovah's Witnesses is located in New York (USA), where all of their religious literature is published. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 June 2015)
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