COUPLE
FINED 650,000 RUBLES IN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CASE IN KAMCHATKA
The
Viliuchinsk city court of Kamchatka territory fined followers of
the Jehovah's
Witnesses, the married couple Mikhail and Elena Popov, 350 and
300 thousand
rubles respectively. This is reported on the website of the
religious movement.
The
prosecutor had requested fining them 550 and 500 thousand
rubles. The residents
of the closed city of Viliuchinsk were found guilty of
participating in the
activity of an extremist organization (part 2 of article 282.2
of the CC). The
court mitigated the charge; previously the couple was accused of
arranging the
activity of an extremist organization and recruitment of people
into it (parts
1 and 1.1 of article 282.2)
As
the website of Jehovah's Witnesses reports, in 2017 two persons,
"expressing interest in the Bible, began conducting
conversations about
God and the Bible" with the couple and then they informed the
F.S.B. about
the conversations. The Popovs were arrested after widespread
searches in
Kamchatka in late July 2018. The man spent 11 days in a
temporary holding cell,
and the woman spent five days. Then both were released.
Judge
Alexander Ishchenko maintained during one of the sessions that
"Jehovah's
Witnesses do not wish to fulfill several fundamental laws of
society," the
report says.
"They
refuse to defend the motherland. Isn't this really setting one's
self in
opposition to society? Then who would defend the motherland if
the majority
become Jehovah's Witnesses? What would happen to the country
then? Isn't this
really a threat to our national security?" the website of the
religious
movement quotes Ishchenko.
In
addition the judge demanded interruption of a viewing of a film
of the
Watchtower Society organization about the refusal of adherents
of Jehovah's
Witnesses to participate in World War II.
"The
court halted this showing because it voices clearly extremist
statements
regarding other religions," the judge said.
Widespread
persecution of believers throughout Russia began after the
Supreme Court in
2017 ruled the organization to be extremist and forbade its
activity. (tr. by
PDS, posted 14 February 2020)
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/.