Posts by Drearyweather

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

12:17

Representative of the Axes: The Ministry of Justice encourages the Supreme Judiciary of the country to resort to double standards. Earlier, the court, with the support of the Ministry of Justice, held a consistent position that decisions against local organizations did not affect the rights of the Management Center. Now the position of the ministry has changed to the exact opposite. It is trying to extend the sanctions imposed on several local organizations to the center and to all the other 395 local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses.

12:22

Toporov analyzes the legal meaning of the concept of "entering the structure of a centralized organization". Referring to the legislation, statutes and legal opinions, Toporov shows that we are talking only about the canonical, spiritual connection. Local religious organizations are not branches and representations of a centralized organization.

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

That's correct. The banned extremist material was actually seized by customs before it was technically imported. The JWs ran numerous articles on this criticizing the Ministry of Justice for seizing the material.

I'm not sure. Have JW's tried to import literature into Russia after they had been declared as extremist? Or is it that Russia blocked the shipment, sent it to the experts and then declared them as extremist?

On jw.org,

On July 14, 2015, Russian customs officials took an unprecedented step against Jehovah’s Witnesses by denying importation of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, published by the Witnesses in the Russian language. Since March 2015, Russian authorities have stopped all shipments of the Witnesses’ religious publications, even though none of the literature intended for import is banned in Russia.

https://www.jw.org/en/news/legal/by-region/russia/russia-blocks-bibles-20150721/

The timeline of the literature seizing done by Russia:

https://www.jw.org/en/news/legal/by-region/russia/censorship-russian-bibles-literature/

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

11:55

Lawyer Zhenkov documents that the printed materials were never imported into the country after they were recognized as extremist. This also applies to all episodes that the Ministry of Justice imputes to believers in their lawsuit.

12:05

When almost every publication in the country was imported to the center of Jehovah's Witnesses, there were results of examinations that did not reveal any signs of extremism in them. Thus, the center could not foresee that these or other materials can be considered extremist. Legislation is based on the principles of legal certainty and predictability of the consequences of certain actions. However, in the actions of state bodies against Jehovah's Witnesses, this principle is clearly not observed.

12:10

Speech representative Respondent Toporov. "The extremism of Jehovah's Witnesses remains extremism on paper." No victims, victims or victims of alleged "extremist" activities, either the Prosecutor's Office or the Justice Ministry could not have imagine

12:12

Toporov refutes the thesis of the Ministry of Justice on "financing of extremism". The financial aid directed by the LRO was directed to the service of liturgical buildings, payment of public utilities, sometimes to help believers who suffered from natural disasters.

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

Laws in Russia were only introduced in 2016 that make it a criminal offence to encourage others to not undertake lawful medical treatment. There have been no cases since the law was introduced which is why the JWs focused on 'no cases'.

If so, then why did the Ministry bring this point up?

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

11:39

Zhenkov draws attention to the fact that cases related to the recognition of the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist have been appealed to the ECHR. 22 complaints and combined into one production. In response to a request from the Strasbourg Court, the Russian Federation formally acknowledged that the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses does not contain open calls for violence.

11:45

The Supreme Court repeatedly ruled that the cases of recognizing the materials of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist did not affect the rights of the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia", and these decisions were not abolished. And the Ministry of Justice now believes that on the contrary, it affects the rights of the center. But this is a mistake.

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

I'm getting confused. Yesterday, while arguing about medical treatment, why didn't the justice ministry present all the cases of deaths caused due to blood transfusion refusals? or is it that they don't have such data?

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

11:35

Zhenkov: It seems that the prosecutor's office is trying by any means to recognize as extremist as possible a large number of materials of Jehovah's Witnesses. For example, the prosecutor's office sued the recognition of the extremist Bible itself, despite a direct reservation in law that the Bible and quotations from it can not be considered extremist. From the prosecution's argument: "Taken as a book, the Bible ceases to be a Bible, which it is only in the Church." (Laughter in the hall.)

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

11:20

Zhenkov draws attention to the fact that the vast majority of Witness publications were included in the FEMC 8 years ago. During these years there was not a single terrorist act or act of vandalism on the part of Jehovah's Witnesses. Nothing of the kind happened before.

11:24

Zhenkov draws attention to the fact that all these publications were included in the FSEM before the famous resolution of the plenum of the Supreme Court, which explained that extremism can not be considered criticism of other religions.

11:25

Zhenkov emphasizes that only some experts find signs of extremism in the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses. Often unskilled experts work. Courts consider cases in the absence of believers. For example, one of the brochures, which contains almost no text, was considered extremist for the phrase "Avoid bad deeds." In response to laughter in the room, Zhenkov said that people who are being searched because of this brochure are not to laugh.

11:30

Two other publications have been made to the FSEM, but Jehovah's Witnesses still do not know why, despite many requests and requests. "If so consider printed texts, then Russia can soon be left without books!"

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

11:15

The speech of lawyer Zhenkov. He convincingly proves that, contrary to the Justice Ministry's statement, among the goals and objectives of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses there is no extremism. If for 100 years unofficially and 26 years of officially existence of Jehovah's Witnesses there was no proven harm from their activities, then what harm does the Ministry of Justice refer to?

51

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

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

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.

Drearyweather

11:13

They struggle with extremism in the whole civilized world. However, only in Russia for this are persecuted Jehovah's Witnesses, whose worship in the world is visited by about 20 million people. To pursue them in Russia is to challenge all those countries where Jehovah's Witnesses freely profess their faith. At this Cherepanov ends his speech and asks to attach the theses of his speech to the case.