For Immediate Release
May 17, 2001

Court Bans Jehovah's Witnesses in
Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia

PROKHLADNY, RUSSIA—On May 10, the Prokhladny District Court ordered the dissolving of the local community of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Prokhladny, Kabardino-Balkaria. This city is located in southern Russia, not far from Chechnya. The judge decided that the community had violated Russia's 1997 law on religion because members along with fellow believers were preaching outside the Prokhladny District.

"We filed our appeal immediately," said Artur Leontyev, an attorney for Jehovah's Witnesses. "The decision is the result of a campaign of religious intolerance recently unleashed in the territory of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic. Many want the president of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic to approve a new law that would contradict the federal law on religion and severely discriminate against all religious minorities. This would be in direct conflict with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and commitments under the European Convention to protect religious freedom. Some regions, however, do not always agree with federal law."

The association of Jehovah's Witnesses in Prokhladny numbers over 500 persons, including victims of Soviet persecution. "It is ironic that the court's decision to ban us comes in May 2001," said Vasilii Kalin, one of Jehovah's Witnesses and a survivor of Soviet repression. "This spring marks 50 years since Stalin's infamous forced exile of thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses to Siberia. During April, scholars and victims met for memorial conferences in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Almaty and Irkutsk. Does Kabardino-Balkaria want to return to those hideous days of religious intolerance?"

In addition to the appeal made by Jehovah's Witnesses against the banning order, the local Ministry of Justice in Kabardino-Balkaria will probably launch an appeal. On April 24, 2001, the Nalchikskiy City Court ordered that office to re-register three local communities of Jehovah's Witnesses, including the one in Prokhladny. There is also pending legal action to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in nearby Maiskiy.

United States Contact: J. R. Brown, telephone: (718) 560 5600
Russia Contact: Russian-speaking, Jamslav Sivulskli, 7 (902) 682 82 09
or mobile telephone: + (7) 8 902 682 8197