For Immediate Release
February 10, 2003
(Russian)

Moscow Prosecutor's Office continues fight against freedom of conscience

MOSCOW—After nearly a year's adjournment, the case filed by the Northern Administrative Circuit Prosecutor's Office against the Moscow Community of Jehovah's Witnesses will resume on Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at the Golovinsky Intermunicipal (District) Court, Judge Vera K. Dubinskaya presiding. The retrial, which began in October 2001, was adjourned on April 4, 2002, when the court ordered two expert studies—a philological-linguistic study of the religious literature of Jehovah's Witnesses and a social-psychological study on the public's opinion of the religious activity of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Community appealed this ruling, and it was reversed by the Moscow City Court on November 22, 2002.

The Prosecutor's Office was unsuccessful in the original trial, when on February 23, 2001, the court, presided by Yelena Prokhorycheva, dismissed the case in full. However, on May 30, 2001, the Moscow City Court sent the case back for a retrial. This ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia, which has thus far remained silent. Having exhausted all domestic remedies in the Russian Federation, the Community filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights on December 15, 2001, later registered by the Court as No. 302/02.

In speaking on the Council of Europe country-members' responsibilities, a rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on March 26, 2002, cited this ongoing court examination as an example of how the rights of a religious minority are being violated, and emphasized the need to put an end to it.

Commenting on the current situation, the Chair of the International Helsinki Group in Moscow, Ludmilla Alexeyeva stated: "Modern-day persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses has been ongoing for six years. Surely it will not take another six years before justice triumphs."

Local contact: Yaroslav Sivul'skiy
Telephone: +7 (902) 682 8197
E-mail: jsivulskii@vsol.ru

Address of the Golovinsky Intermunicipal Court:
ul. Zoi i Aleksandra Kosmodem'yanskikh, 31/2, Moscow