DECISION BANNING MOSCOW SCIENTOLOGY CHURCH APPEALED IN COURT
Representatives of the Scientology church of Moscow appealed the decision of the Moscow city court that prohibited its activity in Russia, the director of the press service of the court, Uliana Solopova, told RIA Novosti.
"The appellate complaint arrived at the court, so the decision has still not taken legal effect," she said. The appeal will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the Russian federation.
The Moscow city court banned the activity of the Scientology church in Moscow. Earlier Judge Mikhail Kazakov granted the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice for prohibition the activity of the Scientology church of Moscow and gave the organization six months for liquidation.
The lawsuit of the ministry cited the fact that the world "Scientology" is registered as a trade mark whose copyright holder is the Center of Religious Technology in the USA. This violates the requirements of Russian legislation on freedom of conscience and religious confession, since a commercial partnership is spreading religion and not a religious organization.
Dianetics and Scientology is a religious and philosophical movement that was founded in the USA in the early 1950s by science fiction writer Lafayette Ron Hubbard. The scientific community has not recognized it as science.
In Russia, a resolution of the State Duma of 15 December 1996 classified the Church of Scientology as a destructive religious organization (totalitarian sect, destructive cult). By decision of the Moscow provincial court, in 2012 several books by Hubbard were entered into the federal list of extremist materials and their distribution on Russian territory was forbidden. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 January 2016)
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