PROSECUTOR'S
OFFICE
AIMS TO RETURN REAL ESTATE OF ANGARSK JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES TO
STATE
Interfax-Religiia,
25
January 2018
The
prosecutor
of Angarsk sent to the city court a lawsuit with the request to
return to state
ownership a building and parcel of land previously belonging to
a local
religious organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which are
banned in Russia,
the prosecutor's office for Irkutsk oblast reported on Thursday.
"In
2017,
by a decision of the Russian Supreme Court, the religious
organization 'Administrative
Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia' was liquidated along
with the local
religious organizations belonging to its structure. The property
of the
liquidated organization reverted to the ownership of the Russian
federation on
the basis of article 9 of the federal law "On combating
extremist
activity," the oversight agency recalled.
According
to
information from the prosecutor's office, the Angarsk local
religious
organization of Jehovah's Witnesses had transferred the building
and land in
Angarsk, where worship services were conducted, to the ownership
of Jehovah's
Witnesses in Spain, on the basis of a donation agreement, before
the adoption
of the aforesaid judicial decision.
"The
donation
agreement was concluded not for socially useful purposes, as
required
by civil legislation, but with the goal of avoiding the loss of
this property
by reason of its reversion to the ownership of the RF. At the
same time, the
immovable property has remained in the effective ownership of
the Angarsk local
religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses on the basis of a
contract for
its use without charge," the report notes.
Therefore the prosecutor of Angarsk asks the court to rule the donation agreement to be invalid and to turn over the building and land of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the city to ownership by the Russian federation. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 January 2018)
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