RUSSIA: (7 April 2017) Day 3 - Jehovah's Witnesses hearing under way

by Drearyweather 51 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Drearyweather

  9am

  In Moscow, a soft rain drizzles. Along the facade of the Supreme Court stretched a large queue of those who came to the process as listeners. A large bus is parked at the courthouse on Povarskaya Street, full of obviously bored police officers. Such a loud process seems to be a riotous event for court employees. However, surprising calm, which, despite obvious excitement, is preserved by hundreds of believers, convinces better than any words that extremism is not about them.

  9:40 am

  The Great Hall of the Supreme Court is gradually filled with listeners and journalists.

  10:00 am

  The process began with questions of the court to the representative of the Ministry of Justice. The court is trying to understand that the plaintiff charges the Management Center with an episode from 2014, when, according to the ministry, the Management Center imported a publication to Russia, which would later be recognized as extremist materials. The court is interested in the question of how the religious organization could know that the book will be recognized as extremist if it is not in the FSEM.
  
• 

  Drearyweather

  10:10 am

  The court tries to understand which rule of law the Justice Ministry relies on, arguing that local religious organizations (MPOs) are "structural subdivisions" of the Management Center. The Justice Ministry believes that this is logical, since organizations read the same literature and are related to each other. The court asks how, in this case, this meets the requirements of legal certainty. Will this not violate the right to freedom of religion enshrined in the European Convention? After all, it was denied the involvement of 395 organizations to participate in the case as co-defendants. Questions remain without distinct answers.
  
• 

  jwleaks

  Thanks Dreary for the post.
• 

  TheWonderofYou

  Thanks. I like the short summaries.
• 

  Drearyweather

  10:20 am

  The judge asks the representative of the Ministry of Justice on the basis of which they claim that the financing of the LRO by the Management Center is precisely the financing of "extremist activity"? What is objectively proved? If nothing, then what are the claims of the Ministry of Justice based on?
  
• 

  TheWonderofYou

  FSEM - What exactly? If only this list of literature is a basis of an accusation for "extremism" then really each piece of literature (or passage in the literature) which is included should be at the moment of inclusiion ben notarially documented and a accompanied by a serious argument by the ministry of justice and not only ad-hoc.

  LRO - Local regional organisations - the legal entities - hundreds of congregations and otther entities, right?

  MPO ....

  ...legal certainty .. interesting.
• 

  menrov

  i might have missed it but what is the Management Center?. Thanks
  
• 

  Drearyweather

  FSEM: Federal List of Extremist Materials

  LRO: Local Religious Organisation (Individual congregations or groups of congregations registered as separate legal entities)

  Management Center: Russian Branch Office of JW's.
• 

  jwleaks

  Суд пытается понять - the court is trying to understand (i.e. internal congregation structures.)

  I have noticed a consistent biased of the facts by the official JW reporter. The court is actually following standard protocol by establishing each parties viewpoint for the record, which can then later be reviewed by the court to then 'understand'.

  I get the impression that the JWs are reporting the courtroom feed with a bias towards anything the judge does that could be construed as in their favor. It would not surprise me that this is a tactic so that if they are banned they could claim 'corruption'.
• 

  Drearyweather

  10:28

  The queue of objections goes to the defendants. However, first of all, the lawyer Omelchenko applies for the inclusion in the case of extracts from the Russian newspaper with the dates of the entry of certain publications into the FSEM. The court adjuncts.