RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Jehovah's Witnesses lose major appeal in Russian court

APPEALS COURT LEGALIZES SEIZURE OF PROPERTY IN VILLAGE OF SOLNECHNOE OF ST. PETERSBURG

Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 3 May 2018

 

The complex of immovable property worth around two billion rubles will be taken from the foreign organization "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. On 3 May 2018 the St. Petersburg city court confirmed the decision of the lower court. The decision takes effect immediately.

 

"The inviolability of private property is considered the basis for confidence in coming days," says Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. "And who can feel himself safe now, after such a decision?"

 

What steps preceded this seizure of property? 1) Without any convincing argumentation, courts have found a number of publications of Jehovah's Witnesses to be "extremist." 2) In 2017, after an epidemic of plants of "extremist" materials in houses of worship, the Russian Supreme Court ruled all 396 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses registered in Russia to be extremist and liquidated. 3) On the basis of this decision, a lower standing court ruled to transfer this property to state ownership, since before the year 2000 it belonged to one of the liquidated organizations. To do this the court ruled a 17-year-old transaction for its transfer to the Watchtower Society to be void.

 

It is worthy of note that back on 20 April 2016, more than a year before the Ministry of Justice's lawsuit for the liquidation of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses, in the Uniform State Register of Rights to Immoveable Property there appeared an intriguing note regarding this liturgical complex: " A decision has been made concerning the seizure of the object of immovable property for state or municipal needs." Rosreestr [Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography] explained to believers that this note was a "technical error."

 

Such a massive seizure in Russia of property that was used for religious purposes is comparable only with the decree of the Sovnarkom "On the separation of church from state" of 1918, by which religious organizations were deprived of their property. However, in contrast to the events of 100 years ago, the buildings of the Jehovah's Witnesses had been acquired and built without government support and exclusively by means of the voluntary contributions and efforts of the believers themselves.

 

All options for further appeal of this decision, on both the national and the international level, will be considered by the Watchtower Society after familiarization with the full text of the appellate determination. In addition, the European Court of Human Rights is considering on an expedited basis the appeal of the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin versus the Russian Federation," that was filed in connection with the decision of the Russian Supreme Court, which in its turn served as the basis for today's decision. (tr. by PDS, posted 3 May 2018)


Related article:
Jehovah's Witnesses losing hope for their property
April 25, 2018

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