JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES COMPLAIN ABOUT
DISRUPTION OF
WORSHIP SERVICE IN BUDENNOVSK
Kavkazskii
Uzel, 26 August 2016
In Budennovsk in Stavropol territory on
24 August law
enforcement agents conducted a search in a building where a
Jehovah's Witnesses
service was being conducted. During the search, forbidden books
were planted,
the press service of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's
Witnesses in Russia
reported.
The search was conducted by a group of
persons in
civilian clothing, who demanded that the Jehovah's Witnesses'
service cease.
The representatives of law and order did not identify
themselves, but they
presented an order of a Stavropol territorial court for
conducting operational
search activities.
They demanded that all attending the
service leave the
building and they prohibited making a video, then they dispersed
about the
rooms for conducting searches, after which they found several
publications from
the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
In the information section in
Kavkazskii Uzel the
nationwide list of materials ruled by a court to be extremist
was published. In
accordance with article 13 of the federal law "On combating
extremist
activity," this list "is subject to periodic publication in news
media."
At the same time a search was also
conducted in the
apartment of the chairman of the local religious organization,
during with
nothing that is prohibited was discovered. Despite that, the
hard drive of his
computer was taken along with literature that is not included in
the Federal
List of Extremist Materials.
In the report about what happened in
Budennovsk, the
press service of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's
Witnesses in Russia
states that "the brazen planting of literature coupled with
crude
disruption of worship services has become in recent time a
distinguishing
indicator of the aggressive campaign against believers," and
also that
"Jehovah's Witnesses are diligent to see that literature from
the Federal
List of Extremist Materials is not kept on their premises."
Kavkazskii Uzel does not have at its
disposal comments
by representatives of law enforcement agencies of Stavropol
territory regarding
these statements. There is no information on the website of the
Stavropol
directorate of the Russian MVD about activity conducted by the
police on 24
August in Budennovsk with respect to Jehovah's Witnesses, as of
9:30 Moscow
time on 26 August.
We recall that on 25 March, law
enforcement personnel
conducted a search in a Jehovah's Witnesses house of worship
located in
Stavropol. After that the Administrative Center of Jehovah's
Witnesses in
Russia also reported the planting of extremist materials,
expressing the
opinion that the authorities are conducting a deliberate policy
of combating
the organization.
Lev Levinson, an expert of the
Institute of Human
Rights, thinks that the reason for pressure on Jehovah's
Witnesses in Russia is
the "principled pacifism" of members of this religious
organization.
The director of the Center for the Study of Problems of Religion
and Society of
the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Anatoly Krasikov,
is sure that Jehovah's Witnesses, specifically in Taganrog, are
persecuted for their
faith, in violation of the Russian constitution.
Previously Kavkazskii Uzel has written about a number of criminal cases in other regions of the south of Russia with regard to followers of the international organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, particularly in Taganrog and Abinsk. Believers there also were accused of distributing publications that are included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. At the same time, the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves think that they are persecuted for their religious convictions. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 August 2016)
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