Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
January 21, 2010
(Russian)

Fair trial or judgment of faith?

GORNO-ALTAYSK, Russia-On January 27, 2010, the Supreme Court of the Altay Republic will hear a case to review the appeal of the decision of the Gorno-Altaysk City Court to pronounce 18 religious publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses extremist. Are the conclusions of the city court well-founded, or is this trial an attempt to pass judgment on a religion?

The City Court submitted evidence from three experts, L.A. Arayeva, M.S. Yanitskiy, and M.A. Osadchiy. However, A.Ye. Nagovitsin, doctor of philosophical studies and candidate for psychological studies, stated that “the conclusions by their evaluative nature are deficient both scientifically and from a linguistic and psychological standpoint.” In spite of the obvious bias evident in the expert conclusions, the Gorno-Altaysk City Court considered them “sufficiently applicable and acceptable evidence” and stated that “the expert conclusions are objective.” Upon reviewing the section “Judge for yourself” on the www.jw-russia.org, Web site, many Russian and foreign visitors are puzzled by the conclusions of the experts.

Even though the purpose of the trial is to analyze the religious publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in reality it attempts to pass judgment on religious belief, since the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses are outlined in those publications. By contrast, Professor N.S. Gordienko of St. Petersburg's Pedagogic University summed up his research: “The antagonism expressed today toward Jehovah’s Witnesses was formed in the era of atheism. At that time for the most part the Bible was criticized, and religion as a whole. Today it is not fashionable to criticize the Bible. It is also forbidden to criticize the so-called traditional churches, but not Jehovah’s Witnesses. However in reality what is being criticized is the Bible. The only thing that Jehovah’s Witnesses are guilty of is consistently propagandizing Bible teachings and adhering to them in their lives.”

The decision handed down by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on December 8, 2009, has already resulted in a succession of negative consequences. In different regions of Russia, religious people are being insulted, detained, questioned, and held under administrative arrest. What is happening is exactly as the chairman of the Presiding Committee of the religious organization the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, V.M. Kalin, predicted when he said that the decision of the Supreme Court has opened the way for a new era of persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. How long it will last, time will tell.

Contact information:

In Russia: Grigoriy Martynov, tel. + 7 911 101 7624

In USA: J.R. Brown, telephone +1 718 560 5600

In Belgium: European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses
Telephone: +32 2 782 0015

In Germany: Wolfram Slupina, tel. + 49 6483 413110