Kazakhstan Government Suspends Branch Operations of Jehovah’s Witnesses

On June 29, 2017, a Kazakhstan court ordered the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to suspend operations for three months and fined them approximately 680,000 KZT ($2,107).Leading up to the court decision, authorities...

RUSSIA: Changing administrative punishments for public events

Prosecutions under Administrative Code Article 20.2 for exercising freedom of religion and belief in public fell in 2016 as officials turned to "anti-missionary" Article 5.26 (Parts 3, 4, and 5), which came into force in...

Russia’s Supreme Court Ruling Has Negative Impact on Jehovah’s Witnesses

Russia’s Supreme Court decision of April 20, 2017, is having a severe nationwide impact on Jehovah’s Witnesses. Authorities are violating the Witnesses’ fundamental freedoms and criminalizing their religious activities. At the same time, some Russian citizens interpret...

President Putin Gives Parenting Award to Jehovah’s Witnesses

 NEW YORK, June 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 31, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the Order of "Parental Glory" to Valeriy and Tatiana Novik, Jehovah's Witnesses from Karelia, who raised eight children, during a ceremony in Moscow at the Kremlin.The Order of...

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia Have Ban Appeal Date Set But Have Little Hope of Success

An appeal against a ban of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia has been set by the country’s Supreme Court for July 17. The liquidation of the Christian denomination’s 395 local religious chapters in the country was...

Persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia intensifies

Teachers have humiliated Jehovah’s Witness children in front of their classmates. Arsonists have burned Witnesses’ homes. Security forces have raided their meeting halls.Since the Russian Supreme Court on April 20 declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses an extremist group,...

Danish man arrested in Russian raid on Jehovah’s Witness service

A Danish national was arrested this week during a police raid in the central city of Oryol, Russia, during a worship service by members of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which Russia recently banned as an extremist...

RUSSIA: Fines, vandalism follow Jehovah’s Witness liquidation

As Jehovah's Witnesses challenge the Supreme Court liquidation of all their organisations as "extremist", their Centre is closed, police have sealed some Kingdom Halls and bank accounts are frozen. Individuals continue to face fines, children...

Jehovah’s Witnesses appealed against Supreme Court decision

 Â On the 30-day deadline, an appeal was lodged against the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia of April 20, 2017 to liquidate all registered organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The full text of the...

Kazakhstan Imprisons Ailing Jehovah’s Witness and Bans His Worship

ALMATY, Kazakhstan—On May 2, 2017, a court in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, sentenced Teymur Akhmedov to a five-year prison sentence for performing his peaceful Bible education work, characterized by the court as “inciting religious discord”...