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• 

  messenger

  For Immediate Release
  October 30, 2001

  Representative of Orthodox Church to testify
  against Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow trial

  MOSCOW—In a dramatic first day of the retrial aimed at banning Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow, the court agreed to hear testimony from Alexander Dvorkin, whom Prosecutor, Tatyana Kondratyeva identified as "a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church." Galina Krylova, a prominent Russian lawyer, objected to the court's hearing from representatives of any other faith, saying: "We are not here to discuss religious beliefs."

  Earlier, Judge Vera Dubinskaya refused several defense motions. Defense lawyer Artur Leontyev argued that after six years of criminal and legal proceedings, the trial should be halted "because under international law of double jeopardy, it is not possible to be tried twice for the same offense."

  John Burns, a Canadian human rights lawyer, pointed out: "In the eyes of the European Court of Human Rights, this is a criminal case because it carries a severe penalty. Should the prosecution win, Jehovah's Witnesses will be denied fundamental constitutional rights, including the right to hold religious gatherings and the right to import religious literature." He added: "The prosecutor is asking the court to ban what the European Court has already classified as a 'known religion.'" In response, Kondratyeva insisted: "We do not intend to judge individual beliefs. Our aim is to ban the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses as a legal entity."

  An application is before both the Supreme Court in Russia and the European Court of Human Rights to review the appellate Moscow City Court's ordering of a retrial. Judge Dubinskaya refused a motion to suspend the trial pending the outcome of these two court hearings.

  The previous trial spanned two years, concluding on February 23, 2001. After 35 days in court, during which time 45 witnesses testified and 2,740 pages of testimony was recorded, all charges filed by the Moscow Prosecutor's Office against Jehovah's Witnesses were dismissed by Judge Yelena Prokhorycheva because of a lack of evidence.

  Today marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of a constitutional law in Russia that rehabilitated Jehovah's Witnesses who were victims of religious oppression under Soviet rule. One of those victims, Vasilii Kalin, who is chairman for Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and who was present at today's hearing, said: "The accusations in this trial are starkly similar in tone and content to those made in the Stalin era 50 years ago, when my family and more than 9,000 others were exiled to Siberia for publicly talking about the Bible."

  Contacts: Russian-speaking, Jaroslav Sivulskii, mobile telephone: + (7) 8 902 682 8197
  English-speaking, Paul Gillies, Mobile Telephone: + (7) 812 936 61 04
• 

  messenger

  The other view....

  Moscow Jehovah's Witnesses back in court
  NEW ATTEMPT TO PROHIBIT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
  Mir religii, 1 November 2001
  In the Golovin intermunicipal court of the capital the judicial hearing of the suit of the procuracy of the Northern Administrative District for the liquidation of the Moscow congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses has been resumed. The hearing is being held before a new judicial panel chaired by Judge Dubinskaia. The Jehovah's Witnesses are being represented, as before, by the attorneys Galina Krylova, Artur Leontiev, and John Burns, Blagovest-info reports.

  The case for the liquidation of the Moscow Jehovah's Witnesses congregation on the basis of point 2 of article 14 of the law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" was initiated in 1998 by the procuracy of the northern district on the initiative of the public Committee for the Protection of Youth from Totalitarian Sects.

  Jehovah's Witnesses are accused of inciting religious conflict, conducting activities intended to break up families, encouraging suicide, violating the rights and freedoms of citizens, and attracting minor citizens to participation in the congregation's activity. In the course of judicial investigation, which has gone on more than two years, 45 witnesses have been examined, and a complex psycho-linguistic and religion studies expert analysis of the literature and documents of Jehovah's Witnesses has been conducted.

  On 23 February of this year the court rejected the petition by the procurator's office of the northern district for liquidation of the legal entity and prohibition of the activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses, requiring the plaintiff to pay the costs for the complex psycho-linguistic and religion studies expert analysis.

  However, on 30 May the Moscow city court issued a ruling to return the case to the Golovin court for a new review with a new judges' panel. The prosecutor's office summoned for participation in the new trial the director of the Informational-Consultative Center of the Holy Martyr Ireneaus of Lyons, Alexander Dvorkin, as an expert witness.

  During the hearings on 30 October, attorneys for the Witnesses filed a petition for postponing the trial since at the present time protests regarding the ruling of the Moscow city court of 30 May have been sent to the Supreme Court of Russia and the European Court for Human Rights. In the attorneys' opinion, the present review in Golovin court "may turn out to be meaningless and unintentionally abrogate the limited powers of the Russian procuracy and court."

  Attorney John Burns, in particular, declared that "from the point of view of international law, which, according to the constitution, is a integral part of the Russian legal system, it is impermissible to consider identical accusations first in criminal and then in civil procedures."

  This is just what has happened, he says, in the Golovin court, since such accusations of the prosecutor as the inciting of interreligious conflict are, in essence, of a criminal nature. "All these accusations have already been refuted during the preliminary investigations that have been conducted four times by investigators of the prosecutor's office between 1996 and 1998," the attorney stressed. "Reviewing the disproven accusations a second time in the civil case is impermissible."

  All eight petitions submitted during the hearings by Jehovah's Witnesses'attorneys were denied. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 November 2001)
• 

  MacHislopp

  Hello Messenger,

  Thanks for the informations.

  Can you imagine " Paul Gillies" great help

  to the case???

  Greetings, J.C.MacHislopp

  " One who has an accurate knowledge
  of God's Word will have no problem
  in refuting false religious ideas".