{"id":2522,"date":"2015-03-05T19:46:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T19:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2015\/03\/05\/russian-court-denounces-jehovahs-witnesses-as-extremist\/"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:25:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T07:25:31","slug":"russian-court-denounces-jehovahs-witnesses-as-extremist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/russian-court-denounces-jehovahs-witnesses-as-extremist\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Court Denounces Jehovah’s Witnesses as ‘Extremist’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A\u00a0court in\u00a0southern Russia has denounced a\u00a0local organization of\u00a0Jehovah’s Witnesses as “extremist” and\u00a0ordered it disbanded, the\u00a0Interfax news agency reported Wednesday, in\u00a0the latest in\u00a0a long line of\u00a0such rulings issued to\u00a0the religious group in\u00a0Russia.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0group’s building and\u00a0surrounding land will be confiscated by\u00a0the local government in\u00a0the town of\u00a0Abinsk, Krasnodar region, the\u00a0court ruled.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0group had been distributing publications titled “Humanity in\u00a0Search of\u00a0God” and\u00a0“What Does the\u00a0Bible Really Teach?” that were included in\u00a0the federal list of\u00a0extremist materials and\u00a0are banned for\u00a0distribution in\u00a0the country, the\u00a0news report said.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0local group’s founders\u00a0\u2014 Igor Soroka and\u00a0Albert Belikov\u00a0\u2014 were already fined for\u00a0distributing banned literature in\u00a02010 and\u00a02012, respectively.<\/p>\n

Nearly 70 Jehovah’s Witnesses publications are included among the\u00a0federal list of\u00a0extremist materials. Most were blacklisted on\u00a0allegations of\u00a0inciting religious hatred by\u00a0criticizing other branches of\u00a0Christianity.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0group’s lawyers have called the\u00a0court’s decision ungrounded and\u00a0unconstitutional, and\u00a0they plan to\u00a0file an\u00a0appeal with Russia’s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Last December the\u00a0Supreme Court ruled that a\u00a0Jehovah’s Witnesses website and\u00a0three of\u00a0the movement’s religious texts are extremist. Earlier in\u00a0November it approved the\u00a0Samara region’s decision to\u00a0ban the\u00a0group.<\/p>\n

While that was the\u00a0first region-wide ban on\u00a0Jehovah’s Witnesses in\u00a0Russia, Moscow and\u00a0the southern city of\u00a0Taganrog previously imposed bans against local groups based on\u00a0claims of\u00a0extremism in\u00a02004 and\u00a02009, respectively.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Abinsk Jehovah’s Witnesses organization was founded in\u00a01999 and\u00a0consists of\u00a011 members. There are about 200 followers of\u00a0the organization in\u00a0Abinsk in\u00a0total, Interfax reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0court in\u00a0southern Russia has denounced a\u00a0local organization of\u00a0Jehovah’s Witnesses as “extremist” and\u00a0ordered it disbanded, the\u00a0Interfax news agency reported Wednesday, in\u00a0the latest in\u00a0a long line of\u00a0such rulings issued to\u00a0the religious group in\u00a0Russia. The\u00a0group’s building and\u00a0surrounding land…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5694,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions\/5694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}