APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS DECISION BANNING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' WEBSITE
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 1 June 2018
On 30 May 2018, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria rejected the decision of a lower court blocking four websites, including the official information site of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia (jw-russia.org).
Earlier, in February 2018, the prosecutor's office of Prokhladny (Kabardino-Balkara) filed in Prokhladny district court a lawsuit for blocking on the territory of Russia the website jw-russia.org and also another three websites about Jehovah's Witnesses that are not connected with each other. The occasion for the prosecutorial appeal, presumably, was an article "Respected peaceful man convicted for faith in Elbrus region," devoted to the unjust criminal prosecution of a 70-year-old local believer, Arkady Akopin.
The judge of the district court, Takhir Metselov, refused to include the "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania" in the case, despite the fact that the society declared it own rights to the jw-russia.org website, pointed to the existence of a sign protecting its copyright to this website, and sent its own representative to defend its rights. In the end, the case was heard with the participation of only an assistant prosecutor, D.S. Chapsky, who argued that the websites should be prohibited simply because they contained information about Jehovah's Witnesses. During the trial the judge did not get onto the internet and did not investigate the websites.
On 20 March 2018, the Prokhladny district court granted the prosecutor's office's lawsuit, deciding to restrict access to this website.
However now, two months later, the appellate court overruled the decision and terminated proceedings in this case. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 June 2018)
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