Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
April 5, 2002
(Russian)

“Trial of faith” adjourned; no date set for resumption

MOSCOW—Yesterday, after a two-month re-examination of the application of the Northern Administrative Circuit Prosecutor’s Office to liquidate the Moscow community of Jehovah’s Witnesses and to ban its activity, the Golovinsky Intermunicipal District Court ordered that a philological-linguistic expert study be conducted on the literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The court made the decision even though the prosecutor did not present any specific evidence to prove that Jehovah’s Witnesses incite religious discord, break up families, or infringe upon citizens' rights and freedoms. These are charges that would form the basis for liquidating a religious community, according to Article 14 of the 1997 law “On Freedom of Conscience.” Prosecutor Tatyana Kondratyeva’s arguments instead were based on the claim that it is the religious literature that is unlawful.

The defense counsel categorically objected to the expert study, arguing that should the court appoint an expert panel, a comparative study of the literature of other religions should also be made.

The prosecutor’s claim that Jehovah’s Witnesses break up families was refuted by the testimony of Professor A.I. Antonov, the head of the Department of Family Sociology at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. In 2001 the professor conducted a sociological study titled “The Family and the Bible.” Approximately 1,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow were surveyed. The results of the research showed that the divorce rate among Jehovah’s Witnesses was five to six times lower than the average divorce rate in Moscow.

While commenting on evidence used by the prosecutor’s office, defense Attorney Galina Krylova stated: “The prosecutor’s arguments are clearly an infringement upon the fundamental rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, the rights of whom the prosecutor’s office is supposedly trying to protect.” The attorney added: “The prosecutor is attempting to set a legal precedent of this trial of faith . . . a dangerous precedent in our religiously diverse country.”

Contact: J.R. Brown (718) 560-5600