For Immediate Release
European Court of Human Rights issues The Grand Chamber of European Court of Human Rights today ruled unanimously that Greece violated the rights of a conscientious objector when it allowed religious discrimination against him in his employment, thereby denying him freedom of religion. The court awarded nine million drachmas (US$26,000) in damages. Today's decision will likely result in the restoration of the civil rights of more than 3,500 Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece who have been convicted in the last 30 years for their conscientious objection to military service. It will also affect conscientious objectors in the 40 other member states of the Council of Europe. "This decision means that those in Greece who objected to military service for reasons of conscience will not be marked as criminals for the rest of their lives," said Babis Andreopoulos, spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece. "Instead, their freedom of religion will now be fully respected." The court also ruled that there was an unnecessary delay in justice in the case, which was initiated in 1989. Thlimmenos v. Greece is the fourth case involving Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece and military conscription issues to be heard by the European Court. All the cases were decided in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses. Greece instituted an arrangement for alternative civilian service in 1997, shortly after the European Court released its decisions on the three earlier cases. In Greece, those who objected to military service before 1997 were convicted on criminal charges, often serving repeated sentences. Amnesty International calculated the collective time served as 5,000 years. Even after serving long prison sentences, conscientious objectors were refused employment in civil service and banking, denied merchants' licenses, and deprived of other civil rights. In 1983, Iakovos Thlimmenos, one of Jehovah's Witnesses, was found guilty of insubordination for refusing to enlist in the army. In 1989, he was refused appointment as a chartered accountant because of the criminal charge, even though he had passed the relevant qualifying exam. Thlimmenos appealed the decision, but his appeal was finally rejected by the Council of State, Greece's highest administrative court, on June 28, 1996. Contact: Professor Nicos Alivizatos (Greece), European Court decisions can be found on its Web site at www.echr.coe.int Articles on similar cases: "A European Court Rights a Wrong" and "Jehovah's Witnesses Vindicated in Greece"
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