STRASBOURG
COURT
COMMUNICATES APPEAL OF EVANGELICAL CLERGYMAN MANI FROM
NABEREZHNYE CHELNY
Interfax-Religiia,
31
January 2018
The
European
Court of Human Rights [ECHR] sent to Russia a number of
questions regarding the
appeal of a clergyman of an evangelical church of Naberezhnye
Chelny of Indian
descent, one of the first to be deported from the Russian
federation in
accordance with the so-called "Yarovaya Package," and who
subsequently returned on the basis of a decision of the Russian
Supreme Court.
"The
European
Court of Human Rights communicated and posed to the government
of
Russia a number of questions regarding the case of the citizen
of India Viktor
Immanuel Mani, who was deported from Russia and whose interests
I represent at
the ECHR," a lawyer of the "Agora" international rights advocacy
group, Damir Gainutdinov, told Interfax.
"The
case
of Mani was one of the first applications in Russia of the
so-called 'Yarovaya
Package' banning missionary activity," the lawyer noted.
He
specified
that the ECHR, in particular, asks whether courts in Russia have
made a
distinction between the missionary activity of a religious group
and personal
religious confession, and whether in addition the consequences
of such a
decision of deportation from the country, like the well-being of
V. Mani's
family, were taken into account. The Strasbourg court also asks
whether within
the framework of the "Yarovaya Package" there is a "difference
regarding Russian and foreign citizens (the issue is
discrimination)," the
lawyer explained.
The
lawyer said
that V. Mani was a clergyman of the evangelical church in
Naberezhnye Chelny
(Tatarstan) until 2 February 2017 and he had lived about 15
years in Russia,
where he has a family—spouse and daughter—both citizens of
Russia, he had a
permit for residence, and he intended to receive citizenship.
After a regular
worship service open to all comers, D. Gainutdinov explained,
one of the local
residents made a donation for the needs of the church, took a
book and several
religious brochures, and wrote a statement for law enforcement
agencies.
On
20 December
2016 V. Mani was summoned to the prosecutor's office of
Naberezhnye Chelny,
where he was given an order regarding an administrative
violation of law for
"conducting missionary activity in violation of the requirements
of
legislation on freedom of conscience and freedom of religious
confession and on
religious associations by a foreign citizen."
On
the same day,
a Naberezhnye Chelny city court found V. Mani guilty of that
offense and fined
him 30,000 rubles and ordered his deportation beyond the borders
of the RF. On
25 January 2017, the Russian Supreme Court ruled this decision
to be legal. In
February of last year V. Mani was forced to leave Russia.
Parallel
with
the appeal to the ECHR, D. Gainutdinov added, the wife of the
clergyman filed
an appeal in the Russian Supreme Court, which, in turn, on 11
November 2017
overturned the order of the court in the part about deportation,
leaving the
fine in place; and only after this was he able to return to
Russia.
"Russian
authorities
are more frequently using substantively discriminatory
mechanisms in
regulating various social relations," D. Gainutdinov thinks.
As
an example he
cited the prohibition of foreign adoptions, restriction (and
effectively
complete prohibition) of foreign participation in the activity
of news media,
creation of lists of "foreign agents," deportation from the
country
of foreigners with HIV infections, prohibition of the entry of
foreign
journalists, the so-called legislation on "gay propaganda,"
decriminalization of domestic violence, and the like.
"Cases
of
evangelism, by and large, are of the same kind. It seems that
one can already
say that a different kind of discrimination has become one of
the 'bonds' of
Russian domestic policy," the lawyer declared. (tr. by PDS,
posed 31
January 2018)
Pentecostal
pastor expelled from Russia for alleged evangelism
March 3, 2017
ECHR
confronts Russian anti-evangelism law
July 27, 2017
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