ORTHODOX BELIEVERS PROMOTE TRANSFER OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES HOUSE OF WORSHIP IN GEORGIA
Kavkazskii Uzel, 28 April 2015
An initiative group of parishioners of an Orthodox church in the Georgian city of Terzhola are protesting the construction of a Jehovah's Witnesses house of worship in the center of the municipality. They have proposed moving the building to the outskirts of the settlement.
A discussion of the initiative for transferring the construction occurred on 26 April in the House of Culture of the municipality of Terzhola, attended by deputies of the city council, officials of the district administration, and representatives of the Georgian Orthodox Church and parishioners of the Orthodox parish. Representatives of the Jehovah's Witnesses also were invited to the meeting, but they did not arrive.
"A public school, children's day care, and various institutions are located in the district center. Therefore, we consider construction of a functional building there to be inappropriate," declared a member of the initiative group, Maya Tortladze, of the Rustavi-2 television company, Gruziia Online reported on 27 April.
Members of the initiative group noted that they are advocating not a ban on construction but moving the building from the center of the city. Representatives of the district administration of Terzhola agreed with this initiative and offered an alternative parcel for construction, Novosti Gruziia reports.
Comments from representatives of the Jehovah's Witnesses relative to the plans for the transfer of the site for construction of the house of worship have not been received.
Kavkazskii Uzel has written about the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the regions of the Caucasus and the south of Russia. Thus, 16 members of the religious organization in Taganrog were accused of extremism because, according to the investigation, they continued to participate in the activity of the congregation after its prohibition. On 30 July 2014 the city court of Taganrog sentenced four defendants to a suspended sentence and they and another three members of the Jehovah's Witnesses congregation were fined. However all of the convicts were released from paying because of the statute of limitations. Another nine defendants were acquitted. All 16 defendants in the case filed an appeal against the city court's verdict. In their appeals the defendants in the case call their criminal prosecution an example of religious persecution and they insist on complete exoneration. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 April 2015)
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