LEADERS OF RUSSIAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES VIEW SUPREME COURT DECISION AS OPEN PERSECUTION FOR FAITH
Inasmuch as incidents of "extremist activity were not presented to the court
Portal-Credo.Ru, 21 April 2017
"We are disappointed with the decision of the court and we will appeal it without fail, here, in the appellate college of the Supreme Court. If this does not help, there remains only the European court," Yaroslav Sivulsky, a member of the Governing Body of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, shared the plans of the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) in connection with the decision made on 20 April by the Russian Supreme Court for liquidation of their religious organizations in Russia, a Portal-Credo.Ru correspondent reports.
Everybody in attendance in the courtroom was able to be convinced that the position of the plaintiff—the Russian Ministry of Justice—was "absolutely unfounded," Yaroslav Sivulsky thinks. The participants in the trial were left with the impression that the justice ministry did not trouble itself to prepare for the trial, since it was earlier certain of its outcome.
The fact that in the court not a single incident of extremist activity by JW was presented is viewed in the Governing Body as proof that the trial in the Russian Supreme Court is "simply persecution for faith, persecution for religion."
"This is, in fact, a return to the repressions that existed in soviet times. Now our country is being plunged into new religious repressions," Yaroslav Sivulsky concluded. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 April 2017)
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