DATA BASE ABOUT JUDICIAL PRACTICE IN CASES OF "ILLEGAL EVANGELISM" PUBLISHED
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 8 November 2017
In October 2017 a data base, "Missionary Activity in Russia: Judicial Practice," was published. The authors of the project, attorneys Liusiko Adamiia, Evgeny Shestakov, and Igor Yanshin, collected instances known to them of issuance of judicial decisions on the basis of article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law of the RF (violation of legislation on freedom of conscience and freedom of religious confession, and on religious association).
According to these data, most often representatives of protestant organizations and groups were held accountable for "illegal evangelism" or an attempt was made to hold them accountable. As of the end of October, there were 109 such instances tallied: 37 cases against Jehovah's Witnesses were taken to court, 9 with respect to Muslims, 5 with respect to Krishnaites, and 15 cases against representatives of other organizations, including three healers.
Based on the results of a review of these cases, courts found 162 individuals and legal entities guilty under article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law, in 38 instances accusations were dropped, and in 2 cases it was decided to remand for correction.
In a majority of instances (116) the issue was accusation on the basis of part 4 of article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Violations of law (violation of the rules of missionary activity), while 65 cases were based on part 3 of article 5.26 (conducting activity without indication of complete identification) and 21 cases were based on part 5 of the same article (violation of rules of missionary activity by a foreign citizen). There was also a case of applying part 1 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law (violation of established procedure for conducting a public event).
The data base will be supplement as information about new cases arrives. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 November 2017)
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