MINISTRY OF JUSTICE CONSIDERS COURTS' DECISIONS ON BAN OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ACTIVITY TO BE JUSTIFIED
Interfax-Religiia, 28 September 2018
The Russian Ministry of Justice does not see violations of the rights of adherents of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, which is forbidden in the RF, inasmuch as its ban on the territory of the country was made by reasonable decisions of courts. This position will be presented in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by 7 December, the press service of the ministry reported.
"In the formulation of their legal position, the authorities of the Russian Federation proceed from the reasonableness and legitimacy of decisions adopted by national courts with respect to the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, in connection with which violations of the provisions of the Convention on Human Rights and Basic Freedoms are not perceived," a statement of the press service of the Ministry of Justice presented on Friday to an inquiry of Interfax says.
The ministry confirmed that the deadline for preparation and presentation to the ECHR of the position of Russian authorities on the appeals "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalinin vs Russia" and "Local religious organization Glazov and others vs Russia" was indeed extended until 7 December 2018 "because of the substantial number of petitioners participating in the appeals and also of the items of real estate scattered throughout various constituent entities of the Russian Federation."
The Russian Supreme Court on 20 April 2017, on the basis of a lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice, found the Russian Jehovah's Witnesses to be an extremist organization and prohibited its activity on the territory of the country. Last Wednesday Radio Liberty reported that the ECHR granted the Russian Ministry of Justice an extension to 7 December 2018 for preparation of comments upon the appeals of the Administrative Center of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization that is banned in the RF. "The Ministry of Justice was supposed to send to the ECHR its comments in early September; however, as the deputy minister of the ministry, Mikhail Galyperin reported, it was unable to do this because of the great number of petitioners and the volume of documentation," the report said.
In it, it was noted that the lawsuit against the RF was filed by the Jehovah's Witnesses a year ago in connection with the decision of the Supreme Court to ban the activity of this religious organization on the territory of Russia and to find it to be extremist. According to Radio Liberty's information, the total of compensation on the appeals of the believers is about 79 million euros (around 6 billion rubles) and the basic requirement upon Russia is the return of confiscated real estate. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 October 2018)
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