Posts by OrphanCrow

14

RUSSIA (20 June 2017): JW video depicting kingdom hall burnings, raids, and interviews with JWs

by jwleaks in

video published on official jw website:.

https://jw-russia.org/news/17062022-182.html.

.

OrphanCrow

steve2: I can't quite fathom out the purpose of the replayed scenes in the video of men vandalising the interior of a Kingdom Hall in the dead of night - and staring at the CCTV. They do not look at all like police, but more like common thugs. The video shows these scenes st least 4 different times creating impression thus vandalism of Halls is common. And the video of a large man slithering out of a window - who videod it? It looks staged.

It disturbs me to see violent actions that result in damage - It's a relief that this violent act only resulted in loss of property and didn't hurt anybody.

It's interesting that all this footage has been released. A few photos of the damage were posted online right after it happened but there was nothing said about actual footage being captured or that they had clear images of the vandals' faces. And now this is released.

What I have been thinking about is how this event has occurred after the Kingdom Halls were scheduled for seizure by the state following the Supreme Court ruling. The property that was damaged and treated so badly was property that was going to be lost by the JWs. It wasn't even really theirs anymore. So, the question that keeps popping into my mind is this: who was pissed about the Supreme Court ruling? who trashed the building and stuff that the government had just made possible to be seized?

*Yup...the more I think about it, Steve, I am with you on this one. Except, not staged. It was just footage that was taken during a couple guys retaliation for having their precious building seized. I had an ex-husband like that - if he had a car or something that he was supposed to give back, he would take a sledge hammer to it first. "Here - take the damned car". Bailiffs encounter that all the time - destroyed property that was supposed to be seized.

I think it was a couple JW guys who did it and decided to finally grab the camera, not really concerned about it at first. And then, the footage was used to make it seem like a persecution event

6

RUSSIA: 2016 JW "Extremist" literature prosecutions

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

forum 18 has reported on the number of prosecutions in 2016 in russia concerning extremist literature.. http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2287.

all of the prosecutions involved either islamic or jw texts and/or online postings.. from the article:.

jehovah's witness prosecutions overtake those for islamic literature for first timefor the first time since forum 18's records began, the number of prosecutions for possession or sharing of jehovah's witness materials is higher than that for islamic books or videos – at 63 versus 60 prosecutions.

OrphanCrow

JWs don't make bombs or chop people's heads off...

No. They just distribute literature that depicts "Jehovah" doing/allowing things like that. Or Satan. Or whoever...violent images and anti-government messages

Literature that has been declared illegal in that country.

Note that 17 of the prosecutions were for posting links to jworg. Mind you, several of the prosecutions against Islamic extremist literature distribution were for posting illegal online content.

14

RUSSIA (20 June 2017): JW video depicting kingdom hall burnings, raids, and interviews with JWs

by jwleaks in

video published on official jw website:.

https://jw-russia.org/news/17062022-182.html.

.

OrphanCrow

This video has been compiled and released mainly in support of Dennis Christensen who is being held in jail in Orel. The org has also spliced in a couple other events: a fire that occurred in a village where a JW family's home was burned down by a drunken neighbor after a party got out of hand and a vandalism event at another KH.

About Dennis Christensen.

He is the man in the video at the meeting who is shown interacting with the police. The one wearing the light colored jacket. Watching the video clips without understanding the dialogue, it appears like Christensen has elder ranking in the congregation. If he was just an attendee with no standing, he wouldn't be behaving in the manner that the video reveals.

He was the one arrested and detained for organizing the meeting and he is still in jail, waiting for the authorities to finish their investigation.

Christensen is a Danish citizen yet he has lived in Russia for 10 years. He is married to a Russian JW woman and, according to posts on the European forum I like to read, he is the elder at that congregation and the one who organizes the "congresses"/conventions for that area.

When he appeared in court, he asked for a translator which delayed the first hearing. He claimed that he did not understand Russian well enough to proceed. His position, and one that is being claimed by the org on all their releases concerning his case, is that he "is just a believer", not even a member of the congregation, just visiting, an innocent Danish man who happens to be married to a Russian woman. Who has little Russian language skills. (and friends in the Danish Embassy....)

After asking for a translator, Christensen was held in jail and has recently had an appeal hearing on the order to hold him until the investigation is complete. He has lost that appeal.

According to the following article, representatives from the Embassy of Denmark in Russia appeared at the hearing:

Arrested Witness Dennis Christensen: "I'm cold, and I took away the Bible"

text Denis Wolin

The Dane was the first Jehovah's Witnesses, who was sent to jail after the ban the organization
Orel Regional Court on June 21 rejected a citizen of Denmark Dennis Christensen accused of organization of extremist organizations, in the appeal on his arrest. Christensen was the first arrested in Russia after the ban of Jehovah's Witnesses organization of the Supreme Court. During the meeting, the Dane insisted on the protection of the groundlessness of his detention, the accused complained about the harsh conditions of stay in the detention center and asked the court to release him to the family. During the meeting of the Open Russia correspondent observed.
Sitting in the Oryol Regional Court was scheduled for 14 hours. For half an hour before the start of the courtroom lined up a long queue. Support citizen of the Danish kingdom come several dozen adherents are now banned the Jehovah's Witnesses, and come to the representatives of the Embassy of Denmark in Russia. In the hall with not all the bailiffs were able to find a place only for 30 people.
While presiding judge Igor Spiders did not enter the room, the lawyer Dane Anton Bogdanov and translator Yulii Avakovoy allowed to communicate with his client. In court, the Dane was present at the monitor on a conference call from the jail.
- You will be able to see only the judge - once warned a lawyer. - We asked to be able to send a picture of the entire room, but we were told that the technical capabilities do not allow it to do.
The lawyer asked Dane to speak in the debate slowly, to make it easier to translate. "He understands everything," - after hearing answer Christensen explained translator.
A few minutes in the hall appeared the judge, and the court began to establish his identity and the circumstances of disclosure of the appeal.
Search and detention
45-year-old native of Copenhagen Ole Christensen Dennis was arrested in Orel 26 May 2017 by the FSB. Against him was a criminal case under part 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activity of religious organizations deemed extremist). In 2016, the court banned the activities of the organization "Jehovah's Witnesses-Eagle". However, after the ban, investigators believe Christensen at its base continued activities of the sect. On the eve of the detention of the FSB and the police raided the house, where they spent the Jehovah's Witnesses congregation. According to then control the press service, the security forces have been withdrawn, "more than 1,500 copies of religious literature, including the extremist nature, audio, and video collections, electronic media, computer equipment, accounting documentation, which reflects the amount of financing structures, sources of cash means forms of subscription lists with contact information of community members to refuse their civic duties. ' "Polls about 50 members of the local community MPO SI" Eagle were also carried out, - added to the FSB - during which evidence obtained against defendant in a criminal case and his involvement in illegal activities. "
Soviet District Court of Eagle Christensen was arrested for two months. His defense did not agree with this, and the decision has been appealed.

*read full article at link

6

RUSSIA: 2016 JW "Extremist" literature prosecutions

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

forum 18 has reported on the number of prosecutions in 2016 in russia concerning extremist literature.. http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2287.

all of the prosecutions involved either islamic or jw texts and/or online postings.. from the article:.

jehovah's witness prosecutions overtake those for islamic literature for first timefor the first time since forum 18's records began, the number of prosecutions for possession or sharing of jehovah's witness materials is higher than that for islamic books or videos – at 63 versus 60 prosecutions.

OrphanCrow

In the Chelyabinsk region was fined pensioner, to preach the doctrine of "Jehovah's Witnesses"

(google translate)

In Yemanzhelinsk 5 thousand. Rubles was fined 76-year-old pensioner, which extends to the street about the religious organization "Jehovah's Witnesses". As Znak.com According to the press service of the Prosecutor of the Chelyabinsk region, in relation to women was instituted administrative proceedings under Part 4 of Article 5.26 of the Administrative Code ( "Implementation of the missionary activity in violation of the law on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and religious associations").
"The prosecutor's office Emanzhelinsk in a joint inspection with the staff of the territorial police department found that 76-year-old local resident, in April 2017, while in the public places of the city, publicly carrying out missionary activities, disseminating information about the doctrine of the religious organization" Jehovah's Witnesses "among non non-participants (members, followers) of the religious organization. "
Meanwhile, on April 20, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation acknowledged extremist activity "Jehovah's Witnesses" religious organization and banned its activities in Russia.

5000 ruble fine

34

Russian BOE letters of instruction - meetings and $$$ matter$

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

these letters can be found in the original russian on jwforum.eu.. i will provide links but also copy and paste the english translation that was provided for each one.. this first letter was dated may 21, 2017 and concerns instructions on how to handle the donation$.

(*bolding is mine).

we should not make the same boxes for all groups.

OrphanCrow

Drearyweather: 4. The Supreme Court ban is just one appeal away from being handed over to the police, who would then start investigating all meetings of JW’s.

Dreary, I am going to disagree on this point.

The Supreme Court ruling is the culmination of years of investigations into JW congregations across Russia, not the other way around.

Many congregations are being shut down right now in Russia - there is a wave of closures happening right across the country. The Supreme Court ruling opened the flood gates - it was gushing out before and the Supreme Court responded. Now the authorities are acting on that ruling.

Does the appeal date effect the implementation of the judgement? I don't think so. If someone is found guilty of murder, or any other crime for that matter, the sentence is still put into effect before the appeal is heard. Just because a criminal has access to the appeal process does not mean that they are not subject to the ruling in the meantime. (I should clarify this...an appeal will stop the completion of a sentence - a death penalty for example. but the criminal isn't let free to roam)

The org's lawyers have submitted a hefty document to the Supreme Court outlining all their reasons as to why the judge made a wrong decision. This has zero chance of success and will only ensure that the ruling stands. The only way that a Supreme Court ruling can be overturned is to prove that the court did not follow procedure. Just saying "you made the wrong decision because you don't think like we do..." will not work.

The appeal will be heard on July 17th. I predict a very, very short appearance on the part of the judge and a quick gavel.

6

RUSSIA: 2016 JW "Extremist" literature prosecutions

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

forum 18 has reported on the number of prosecutions in 2016 in russia concerning extremist literature.. http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2287.

all of the prosecutions involved either islamic or jw texts and/or online postings.. from the article:.

jehovah's witness prosecutions overtake those for islamic literature for first timefor the first time since forum 18's records began, the number of prosecutions for possession or sharing of jehovah's witness materials is higher than that for islamic books or videos – at 63 versus 60 prosecutions.

OrphanCrow

Forum 18 has reported on the number of prosecutions in 2016 in Russia concerning extremist literature.

http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2287

All of the prosecutions involved either Islamic or JW texts and/or online postings.

From the article:

Jehovah's Witness prosecutions overtake those for Islamic literature for first time
For the first time since Forum 18's records began, the number of prosecutions for possession or sharing of Jehovah's Witness materials is higher than that for Islamic books or videos – at 63 versus 60 prosecutions. In 2015, the breakdown by religious affiliation stood at 32 Jehovah's Witness/55 Islamic (plus 2 Falun Gong), while in 2014, it was 10 Jehovah's Witness/55 Islamic.
As these figures indicate, the proportion of Article 20.29 cases involving Muslim literature has remained fairly static, while the proportion involving Jehovah's Witness literature has increased hugely. This is in line with the intensification of law enforcement attention towards Jehovah's Witnesses over the last two to three years, culminating in the Supreme Court's decision to dissolve their national-level Administrative Centre and outlaw their activities as "extremist".

As the Supreme Court ruling was in April of 2017, all of the cases that Forum 18 discusses occurred prior to the ruling that closed the Admin Center of the JWs.

Forum 18 lists all the cases and the details of the charges, etc. Because it is a lengthy list, for the sake of simplicity and to get a better grasp of what has happened during 2016 concerning charges of JW extremist literature, I made a spread sheet of all the JW cases and came up with some simple figures. Rather than list all the cases, this a a snapshot of the total literature cases and fines accumulated over 2016:

number of congregations prosecuted - 18

number of congregations fined - 12

*3 cases dropped because of running out of time, 1 acquittal and 2 successful appeals

total congregation fines - 1,600,000 rubles ($26,706 US)

number of individuals prosecuted - 43 (17 for online content relating to jworg)

number of individuals fined: 34

*1 case dropped because of running out of time, 6 acquittals, 1 withdrawn and 1 successful appeal

total individual fines: 142,500 rubles ($2,364 US)

Most of the congregation fines were for 100,000 rubles with one congregation receiving a 500,000 ruble fine.

The most common fine for an individual was 1000 rubles with one noteworthy individual fine of 100,000 rubles.

Converting the Russian ruble to American dollars, it appears like the fines are not that high. However, in spite of these figures seeming to be relatively low, it is important to take the Russian average wage into account. Once a person does that, it is apparent that some of these fines will be placing considerable hardship on the JWs in Russia who may not have a large income to begin with.

The average wage in Russia is not stable and, outside of Moscow, is very low. The average wage of a Russian worker is about $500 US per month. (and I think this is a high estimate). Pensioners and those on disability receive a significantly lower amount - about 2,963 rubles or $50 US per month. A fine of 1000, 2000 or 3000 rubles would impact a Russian pensioner or someone on social assistance in a major way.

The congregation fines ranged from one at a low of 50,000 rubles to a high of 500,000 rubles. Most were 100,000 rubles. A fine of this size for a JW community in Russia could be hard to come up with. Which may account for why the org has become so pedantic on making sure that the Russian elders report their donations weekly now instead of monthly.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5836763203371008/russian-boe-letters-instruction-meetings-matter

In a corporate structure, when the top tightens up the financial procedure at the bottom, it usually indicates that the top fears that the bottom is getting light fingered. It seems as though the org is worried that their "worldwide work" fund might be getting skimmed to pay off congregation fines.

21

info needed on Mexico Scandal regarding KH's meetings with no prayers etc - Thanks.

by WHATSGOINGON in

hi .

trying to find info on the scandal involving mexican congregations not having prayers and singing at the meetings.. i have found some info on jw facts but would like more if anyone knows of a good website to look at.. watchtower observer had some info before but that website is long gone.. any help would be much appreciated.. thanks wgo..

OrphanCrow

smiddy: The simple answer is they couldnt. religious organizations OTHER than the Catholic Church could not purchase land and build their house of worship on it and own it.
The Catholic religion was the official state religion and only they could own the land and building it was on .
Other religions could exist in Mexico but they could not own the land or property including JW`s.

Up until 1991, the Catholic Church was not allowed to own land. The land their churches sat on belonged to the state and after 1991, only new buildings would belong to the church (or whatever religion built them).

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/20/world/mexico-ending-church-restraints-after-70-years-of-official-hostility.html

34

Russian BOE letters of instruction - meetings and $$$ matter$

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

these letters can be found in the original russian on jwforum.eu.. i will provide links but also copy and paste the english translation that was provided for each one.. this first letter was dated may 21, 2017 and concerns instructions on how to handle the donation$.

(*bolding is mine).

we should not make the same boxes for all groups.

OrphanCrow

Well....there was at least one that was closed - Tanarog. I have to check to see if any others were actually closed and banned...I think there were

Ah, yes...ten were closed prior to the Admin Center being closed:

http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2287

This has also been the experience of ten registered local Jehovah's Witness organisations (in Taganrog in 2009; Samara in 2014; Abinsk and Tyumen (though the latter ban was overturned on appeal) in 2015; Stariy Oskol, Belgorod, Elista, Oryol, and Birobidzhan, all in 2016; and Cherkessk in 2017). The Supreme Court also declared the Jehovah's Witnesses' national-level Administrative Centre an extremist organisation on similar grounds on 20 April 2017 and prohibited all Jehovah's Witness activity in Russia.

34

Russian BOE letters of instruction - meetings and $$$ matter$

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

these letters can be found in the original russian on jwforum.eu.. i will provide links but also copy and paste the english translation that was provided for each one.. this first letter was dated may 21, 2017 and concerns instructions on how to handle the donation$.

(*bolding is mine).

we should not make the same boxes for all groups.

OrphanCrow

AnonyMous: @steve2: if you read stuff closer to the source...

Anony, what "stuff closer to the source" have you read? Where are you getting your information from?

Your information is incomplete and is not accurate

*you do know that there were Russian congregations of JWs that were shut down and banned before the Admin Center was closed? Well....there was at least one that was closed - Tanarog. I have to check to see if any others were actually closed and banned...I think there were

38

Who is benefiting from Watchtower Corporation financially

by John Davis in

who do you believe is financially benefiting from watchtower business dealings.

i know about the gold apple watch, but that is only a small percentage of the billions that they have.

so who do you think is keeping all of this money.

OrphanCrow

Nathan: and MINUS the Rock n' Roll

Well, they try...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpr89zk3NQc