For Immediate Release
March 12, 1999

Moscow trial against Jehovah's Witnesses suspended; delay of justice comes day after EP resolution

Today Judge Yelena Prokhorycheva suspended the court case against Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow and gave no indication of when it would resume. Today's postponement, the third in the case, is to allow an "expert panel" to evaluate the religious literature of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Ironically, the judge's decision came the day after the European Parliament passed a resolution chiding Russia for violating human rights and freedom of religion. Specifically the resolution cited rulings of the European Court of Human Rights that exclude "any action by the State to determine whether religious beliefs or the means of their expression are legitimate."

"The judge's ruling is in direct conflict with the European Parliament's resolution," said Canadian human rights attorney John Burns. "This move to create an 'expert panel' to read religious magazines is a joke. There is no crime. There is no case. People can debate all they want about The Watchtower, the Bible, or whatever, but not in a court of law."

The civil case, the first to test Russia's new law on religion in the courts, started September 29, 1999, and has been postponed twice—once to allow time for the Moscow Prosecutor's Office to find evidence for its charges, which it has not done. Court procedure requires that civil cases be resolved within a month. Four consecutive criminal cases on the same charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.

The delay of justice has already caused hardship for Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, said Vasilii Kalin, director of the Witnesses' Administrative Center in St. Petersburg. More than one fifth of the church's members in Moscow have lost leases on their houses of worship. In other cities, re-registration has been delayed as officials wait to see the outcome of the Moscow case.

Background information on the trial and on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia can be found at www.jw-media.org. For more information on Jehovah's Witnesses, visit www.watchtower.org.

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