JEHOVAH'S WITNESS FROM ASHA NAILED FOR VIOLATING LAW ON FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
News Agency Dostup, 24 April 2017
The prosecutor's office of Asha (Cheliabinsk province) discovered violation of Russian legislation in the activity of a local religious group of Jehovah's Witnesses (since 20 April 2017, the organization is prohibited in Russia as extremist), a correspondent of the News Agency Dostup reports.
"It was established that a resident of Asha has conducted missionary activity since May 2016: twice a week, on strictly fixed days, he assembled in his residence on Vavilov Street people for joint reading of prayers and discussion of biblical commandments and convictions of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, with the distribution of informational brochures," the press center of the prosecutor's office reported.
At the same time, according to information of the monitoring agency, in violation of the requirements of federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations," the citizen conducted meetings in his residence without notification of the start of activity of a religious group of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Territory of Asha district and he did not have the appropriate authorizing documents from the organization.
The prosecutor's office issued an order for holding the citizen accountable on the bais of part 4 of article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law of the RF (conducting missionary activity with violation of the requirements of legislation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religious confession, and on religious associations), which provides a penalty of a fine of from 5 to 50 thousand rubles. Materials of the administrative case were sent for consideration on the merits to a magistrate judge.
We recall that on 20 April 2017 the Russian Supreme Court found the activity of the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" to be extremist and ordered its liquidation, converting its property to state income, and banning its activity on Russian territory. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 April 2017)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.