COURT CONFIRMS LEGALITY OF PROSECUTOR'S WARNING ABOUT IMPERMISSIBILITY OF CONDUCTING EXTREMIST ACTIVITY BY RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
Prosecutor's Office of Sverdlovsk province, 26 May 2016
The Serov city prosecutor's office conducted a verification of combating extremist activity by the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Serov.
In the course of oversight activities in an apartment where the founder of this organization resides, a woman, born in 1939, extremist materials that are included in the published Federal List of Extremist Materials were discovered and seized. Thus, more than 50 such books, brochures, and magazines, which were stored in the woman's apartment for purposes of their mass distribution while conducting witnessing activity, were seized.
On the basis of an order of the prosecutor's office, the woman was fined by a court on the basis of article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative violations of Law of the RF (possession of materials included in the published Federal List of Extremist Materials for purposes of mass distribution), and the seized literature was confiscated.
In addition, the Serov city prosecutor issued a warning to the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Serov about the impermissibility of conducting extremist activity.
Not agreeing with the warning, the religious organization filed in court an administrative lawsuit challenging this act of prosecutorial regulation.
By decision of the Serov city court, the petitions of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Serov were denied.
By an appellate decision of the Judicial
College for administrative cases of the Sverdlovsk provincial
court, the decision of the court of the first instance was left
unchanged and the appeal of the organization was denied. (tr. by
PDS, posted 28 May 2016)
77-YEAR-OLD JEHOVAH'S WITNESS IN SVERDLOVSK PROVINCE SUSPECTED OF EXTREMISM
The prosecutor's office issued a warning to a 77-year-old resident of Serov (Sverdlovsk province) who belongs to the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. In the pensioner's home forbidden religious literature was found, Politsovet reports on 27 May.
Extremist materials were found during an inspection in the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Serov.
"In an apartment where the founder of this organization resides, a woman, born in 1939, extremist materials that are included in the published Federal List of Extremist Materials were discovered and seized. Thus, more than 50 such books, brochures, and magazines, which were stored in the woman's apartment for purposes of their mass distribution while conducting witnessing activity, were seized," the prosecutor's office of Sverdlovsk province reported.
The 77-year-old Jehovist not only was fined for "possession of materials included in the published federal list of extremist materials with goals of mass distribution," but there also was issued to her a warning about the impermissibility of extremist activity. The court ruled these actions of the prosecutor's office to be legal. (tr. by PDS, posted 2 June 2016)
SEROV PROSECUTOR WARNED LOCAL JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
The Serov city prosecutor's office conducted a verification of observance of legislation on combating extremist activity in the activity of the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Serov.
The Serov city prosecutor's office issued a warning to local Jehovah's Witnesses. Extremist literature was found in their apartments.
During the verification, in the apartments of founders and members of this religious organization, the presence of several hundred items was established, which have been found to be extremist by courts of the Russian federation and included in the published list of extremist materials. These materials found their way onto the list since they contain calls for inciting religious strife and propaganda of the inferiority of a person on the basis of indicators of his attitude toward religion. Among said materials are such titles as "What does the Bible really teach?" "Questions of Youth. Practical Advice," and issues of the magazines "Watchtower" and "Awake." "Because of this, the Serov city prosecutor's office issued a warning to the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Serov about the impermissibility of conducting extremist activity," Anastasia Semenova, an assistant prosecutor, reported at yesterday's press conference in the Serov prosecutor's office.
"Persons to whom Jehovah's Witnesses have proposed the distribution of the above named materials may turn to us in the prosecutor's office on Lev Tolstoy Street, 14, or at the local department of the Investigative Committee of Russia on Zaslavsky Street, to give reports. We intend to conduct further inspections of possible incidents of distribution," Andrei Arzhakhovsky, Serov city prosecutor, says.
Earlier the newspaper reported the preliminary investigative verification conducted on Jehovah's Witnesses by personnel of the Serov district division of the Investigative Committee. According to our information, within the framework of this investigation about 20 searches of addresses in Serov have been conducted, during which forbidden literature was seized.
Globus has still not been able to get comments from representatives of the religious organization. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 May 2016)
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