RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS

News service reports on Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostals in same article

COURT IN EKATERINBURG FINES PROTESTANTS FROM GRACE IN CHRIST ORGANIZATION

"The mission illegally employed a migrant."

Vedomosti Ural, 19 September 2018

In Ekaterinburg, a court fined a protestant mission, Grace in Christ, 200,000 rubles, a Vedomosti Ural correspondent reports.

The reason for this was violation of migration legislation. It was explained to our publication in the press service of the Sverdlovsk oblast court that the religious organization under the name "Mission Grace in Christ of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith of the City of Ekaterinburg" accepted a citizen of Kazakhstan for work as an administrator. However the organization did not inform the local police about this, thereby violating current Russian legislation.

"By order of a judge of the Ordzhonikidze district court of Ekaterinburg, the local religious organization Mission Grace in Christ was found guilty of an administrative violation of law on the basis of part 3 of article 18.15 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law of the RF, and it was assigned a penalty in the form of a fine of 200,000 rubles. A legal representative of the institution appealed the decision of the court of the first instance in the Sverdlovsk oblast court. The judge of the appellate instance did not find grounds for overturning or changing the order of the judge of the Ordzhonikidze district court of Ekaterinburg," the oblast court noted.

As is known, the Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith is a protestant religious organization affiliated with the movement of Pentecostals.

[Jehovah's Witnesses face resistance from Finland--tr.]

Earlier news media reported that after the prohibition of the activity of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses on the territory of Russia, its adherents began to request in large numbers asylum in Finland. At present there are more than 200 applications from Jehovists under review by the Finnish migration service. A representative of the Finnish Office for Refugee Affairs, Yukhi Similia, told journalists that about 100 members of this religious organization arrived in Finland in the past year, and that many again in the first six months of 2018. Similia said that in this time about ten appeals have been considered and in the majority of them the applicants were refused asylum. Several refusals have been appealed in court and in one lawsuit the court took the side of the agency. Finnish authorities consider that there is no systematic prosecution of all Jehovists in Russia.

"On the basis of information in this country, it is not possible to draw the conclusion that in Russia all Jehovah's Witnesses are in danger of being subjected to serious persecutions," he added. Despite this, each appeal is being considered individually. In April 2017 the Supreme Court found the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist and banned its activity in Russia. Several criminal cases have been opened against its adherents. The Memorial rights advocacy center recognized 29 members of the organization, who have been accused of leading the activity of an extremist organization, as political prisoners. In mid-August, Radio Liberty published a report from a camp for refugees in Konnunsuo where about 80 Jehovah's Witnesses refugees are living. Several of them have been awaiting a decision of the migration service of Finland more than a year and a half. (tr. by PDS, posted 19 September 2018)

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