PREACHERS OF ANCIENT ALTAI FAITH CONVICTED FOR MISSIONARY ACTIVITY
Religiia i Pravo, 28 August 2018
The prosecutor's office of Kosh-Agachskii district, after conducting an inspection, established that in April 2018, citizens who came from Nizhnaia Talda distributed informational materials about the beliefs of an unregistered religious group among persons who were not members of that group, in the village of Mukhor-Tarkhata.
A report from the press service of the prosecutor's office of the republic of Altai emphasizes that such activity is missionary activity and must be done in accordance with the requirements of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations." In their actions, the "missionaries" from Nizhnaia Talda violated the procedure established by law, and therefore the prosecutor's office of Kosh-Agachskii district opened a case of administrative violation of law. A magistrate judge of the Ongudaiskii district found all of the "missionaries" guilty of committing an offense and assigned to them a penalty in the form of administrative fines of 5,000 rubles each.
The report from the prosecutor's office does not specify how many residents of Nizhnaia Talda were fined. At the same time, judging on the basis of information from the system of judicial proceedings of the judicial district of the magistrate court of Ongudaiskii district, on 20 July magistrate judge Natalia Katasheva considered four cases based on part 4 of article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law with respect to O.G. Tyidanov, E.K. Sharapievaia, A.V. Ivanov, and E.E. Tyidanova. As a source acquainted with the situation explained to News of Gorny Altai, they were engaged in distributing the newspaper "Amadu Altai," which is published by adherents of the religious movement "Ak Tyan." In addition, in Mukhor-Tarkhat they allegedly tried to turn the local population against the construction of a [Buddhist—tr.] datsan in Kokor.
Meanwhile, the procedure for conducting missionary activity is provided by the law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations." For conducting such activity, in particular, it is necessary to have a written confirmation of the receipt of registration and of notification of the creation and commencement of activity of the designated religious group, issued by the territorial department of a federal agency of state registration.
We add that problems with the law have often arisen for representatives of "Ak Tyan." Thus, last year, one of the adherents of this movement was convicted of extremism. She published an article that contained denigrating statements regarding citizens on the basis of national identity. Several years ago, nine articles appearing in the publication "Amadu Altai" in 2010-2012 were ruled to be extremist. The publications contained statements aimed at arousing religious strife and hatred toward Buddhists. A former chief editor of the newspaper, Valery Chekonov, was sentence to forced labor for distributing these articles. He later was convicted of desecration of an Orthodox cross in the village of Topuchaia near the Seminsky pass. Yet earlier, two residents of the village of Karakol, who also were adherents of "Ak Tyan," were convicted for an attempt to destroy a Buddhist mandala. (tr. by PDS, posted 29 August 2018)
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