Two Jehovah's Witnesses congregations abolished by courts
Today, 11 February 2016, an administrative lawsuit by the prosecutor of Belgorod province for finding the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Belgorod to be extremist and liquidated was granted by decision of the Belgorod provincial court.
Yesterday the provincial court issued a decision on the administrative lawsuit of the provincial prosecutor for liquidation of the local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Stary Oskol.
The above quote is from one of 5 articles at link.
The fourth article, DOCTORS IN COURT: "JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DIED AFTER REFUSING BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS", gives a synopsis of the hearing in the Belgorod provincial court on Feb 8.
Two doctors were summoned into court as witnesses in order to learn whether religious convictions have affected the state of health of Jehovist patients and whether they could be the cause of the death of patients.
A toxicologist from the Stary Oskol city hospital described how in 2001 a man and his wife who had been poisoned by toadstools were brought to her department. The husband, who was in critical condition, immediately had a blood transfusion in order to cleanse his organism from toxins. But the woman, who felt better than her spouse, refused hemosorption and plasmapharesis.
"The patient was conscious and she herself signed documents refusing blood transfusion. An attorney visited her and persuaded the Jehovist not to consent to these medical procedures and he promised to move her to Moscow where there is a hospital with equipment that permits cleansing the organism of poison without blood transfusion. The husband, who is not a member of the congregation, tried to persuade his wife to do everything that the doctors were recommending, but she was unmoved. The lawyer, who promised help, did not visit the next day. The woman was not moved to the capital hospital. In the end, she died from necrosis of the liver.
"At the last moment, the woman nevertheless agreed to one of the procedures, but it was already too late. In principle, members of the congregation could have moved her to the capital by air ambulance, or have brought other equipment into our hospital which permits cleansing the organism without transfusion. But they did not do this, although the lawyer had promised. In our turn, we were not able to do anything, since we treat with the equipment that we have. And in our city hospital it is possible to remove poison from an organism only by means of pumping the stomach and transfusing blood. This incident made a very strong impression on me. After all, I could have helped this woman at the time, but I was not able to. She refused the transfusion and she died in torment, being conscious all the time," the doctor toxicologist related this sad story.
Yet another Stary Oskol medic described the death of a Jehovist patient after refusing blood transfusion. The man was involved in an accident. Doctors did a serious operation on him, after which he died.
"The patient had more chances to survive if a transfusion had been done on him, but an operation was not done because of extremely low hemoglobin," the doctor concluded.
A man was also questioned in court who had nearly become a member of the congregation. The 33-year-old citizen of Stary Oskol described how he and his spouse were approached on the street by a preacher who offered brochures with articles of religious contents. The man stated that the new acquaintance described to him how it was possible to visit the prohibited website of the Jehovists to which Roskomnadzor had blocked access. A little bit later the Stary Oskol citizen learned that the literature that the preachers had offered to him had also been declared extremist. His wife reported to the police and described for the guardians of order what had happened.
True to form, one of the Watchtower lawyers made an ass of himself.
In his turn, the Jehovists' attorney Anton Omelchenko asked how long the man had cooperated with the FSB. When the judge overruled the question, noting that it had nothing to do with the case, the lawyer rephrased the same question and tried to get an answer from the man. When the judge forced Omelchenko to stop the talk about the FSB, he suddenly asked the witness what his faith was, stating that his beard gave a sort of hint of his religious confession. The judge again overruled the question and threatened to remove the lawyer for impertinent questions. The Jehovists' attorney Alexander Filin behaved more properly and did not pose questions regarding the external appearance of witnesses. The Jehovah's Witnesses' defense tried to insist on the participation in the trial of a religious studies expert, who would be able to describe the activity of the organization as a whole, but the judge rejected the petition, noting that it had nothing to do with the present case.
*an unrelated comment by moi that has nothing at all to do with this topic - I sort of like the way the Russians have come up with an "ist" for the JWs - "Jehovist"
This made me chuckle:
"The Jehovah's Witnesses' defense tried to insist on the participation in the trial of a religious studies expert..."
Haha! Maybe they had Monica Applewhite all lined up for that appearance.