PARTICIPANT IN "MOSCOW AFFAIR" MINIAILO CONDUCTS
PICKET
IN SUPPORT OF TOMSK JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
A former suspect in the "Moscow Affair," Aleksei
Miniailo, conducted a one-man picket in support of Jehovah's
Witnesses. He wrote
on his Facebook page about a believer, Sergei Klimov, who was
sentenced
yesterday to six years in a penal colony.
"Today the Jehovah's Witness Sergei Klimov
received 6 years
for his religious convictions. Real Orthodox believers oppose
religious
persecutions. Each person has the right to decide for himself
what he should
believe in. Persecutions for faith are impermissible,"
Miniailo wrote.
Miniailo conducted the picket in Moscow, near the
church of
Christ the Savior. He called Orthodox believers to defend
Jehovah's Witnesses. He held a sign on which he had written:
"Orthodox, let's defend Jehovah's Witnesses. We also were jailed
for faith quite recently."
On 5 November, a Tomsk court found the Jehovah's
Witness Sergei
Klimov guilty of leading an extremist organization and sentenced
him to six
years in a colony of general regime.
In court, Klimov acknowledged himself to be a
Jehovah's Witness,
but he declared that the indictment called him, without basis,
the leader of
the "Northern. Tomsk" local religious organization of Jehovah's
Witnesses.
The press secretary of Russian President Vladimir
Putin, Dmitry
Peskov, commented on the sentence. He said the decision of the
court is
consistent with existing legislation. At the same time, he did
not deny that
earlier Putin said that Jehovah's Witnesses should not be
persecuted. Peskov
said this topic is not closed, but it has not received any
development.
The Memorial rights advocacy center has
recognized 29 adherents
of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, accused of
extremism, to
be political prisoners and it called for their immediate
release. (tr. by PDS,
posted 6 November 2019)
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