BAPTIST TO BE TRIED FOR CHURCH SERVICE IN NOVOROSSIISK
Svobodnaia
Media, 19 April 2019
An administrative protocol has been drawn up against one
of the
Baptists ministering in Novorossiisk, on the basis of article
5.26 of the Code
of Administrative Violations of Law, "Violation of legislation
on freedom
of conscience and freedom of religious confession and on
religious
associations."
The head of the Novorossiisk organization of Baptists,
Evgeny Kokora,
reported that a presbyter of the Baptist church, Yury Kornienko,
faces trial.
He also reported that the protocol was drawn up eleven days
after the incident,
and not two days afterward, as the law requires. Kokora also
recounted a conversation
with a police major, who "apologized humanely that it was
necessary for
him to summon them and compose this protocol."
The composition of the protocol is a continuation of the
situation in
Novorossiisk where a Baptist worship service in commemoration of
the
Annunciation, which was being held in a private home in the
village of
Verkhnebakanskii, was disrupted.
Troops of the Russian Guard, police, firefighters, and
cossacks, and
representatives of the FSB and city administration broke into
the building and
demanded that the service end. There were around 70 believers in
the room,
including children, women, and elderly folk.
Kokora was later summoned to the FSB, where he was told
that
"Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals, and so forth divide the
unified
Russian spiritual world." (tr. by PDS, posted 22 April 2019)
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