For Immediate Release
May 12, 2003

Trial to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow resumes—no end in sight

Moscow—The retrial aimed at banning Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow is scheduled to resume on May 14, 2003, in the Golovinsky Intermunicipal District Court, Judge Vera K. Dubinskaya presiding.

In April 2002 the Council of Europe adopted a resolution that described the problems Jehovah's Witnesses were experiencing in Moscow as "discrimination and harassment." This followed a report by co-rapporteurs David Atkinson and Rudolf Bindig, in which they recommended that "after six years of criminal and legal proceedings the trial should finally be halted." Mr. Atkinson told the Parliamentary Assembly that the banning of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow was "totally unacceptable."

From 1995 to 1998 the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses were investigated five times by various teams of prosecutors and investigators, each investigation concluding that there were no grounds for a case against the community. Nevertheless, trial hearings began on September 29, 1998, based on the 1997 law On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations. Finally, on February 23, 2001, all charges against Jehovah's Witnesses were dismissed by Judge Yelena Prokhorycheva, who stated in her decision: "There is no basis whatsoever for the liquidation and banning of the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses."

The City Prosecutor's Office successfully appealed this decision, and the retrial began on October 30, 2001. With no end in sight, defense lawyer John Burns argued that the trial should be halted because "after 81 days in court and 77 witnesses testifying, and with repeated delays caused by needless court-ordered expert studies of religious literature, and still no decision, the case contravenes Article 6 of the European Convention that provides: 'In the determination of his civil rights and obligations . . . everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time.'"

English-speaking contact, Paul Gillies, mobile telephone: +(44) 07775 833880
Local contact: Vasilii Kalin
Telephone: +7 (902) 680-17-79
E-mail: jvkalin@wtbts.org.ru
Address of the Golovinsky Intermunicipal District Court:
ul. Zoi i Aleksandra Kosmodem'yanskikh, 31/2, Moscow