For Immediate Release
October 5, 2000

Religious meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses
in Republic of Georgia closed down by police

TBILISI, GEORGIA—On October 1, 2000, Tsageri police ordered all in attendance at a religious meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses to disperse. Those from other towns were instructed to return to their home towns.

Police entered the home where the meeting was being held and ordered some in attendance to accompany them to the police station. There, the Witnesses were told that all those gathered must leave.

Police Chief Mirian Meshveliani explained that he had been instructed by means of a phone call from Tbilisi to escort the "guests" from town. He was to use force if the guests did not leave voluntarily. When asked for the reason for this action, the substitute chief of police, Amiran Kvirikashvili, made reference to the Zugdidi convention of Jehovah's Witnesses that was violently disrupted by masked policemen this past September. After stating that the Orthodox Church is the only true church of Georgia, Kvirikashvili ordered that no further religious meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses be held in Tsageri.

Just a few days earlier, two teachers in the Tsageri district were warned by school officials that they would be dismissed from their posts if they did not give up their religion and become members of the Orthodox Church. The week before, police inspector Giorgi Tsetsadze made an unauthorized search of the home of one of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Avtchala district of Tbilisi. Tsetsadze prepared a written protocol stating that religious meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses are illegal and forbidden.

The registration of Jehovah's Witnesses remains intact pending an appeal to the Georgian Supreme Court of a June 26 district court decision, which overturned an earlier ruling in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses. The case was initiated by nationalist parliamentarian Guram Sharadze, who is seeking to revoke the Witnesses' legal registration. Even so, freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Georgian Constitution.

Contact in Georgia: Badri Kopaliani, telephone: +995 (32) 76-23-59; Fax: +995 (32) 76-95-98
Contact: James N. Pellechia, telephone: (718) 560-5600