{"id":2847,"date":"2017-04-06T14:33:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T11:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2017\/04\/06\/day-2-report-the-supreme-court-is-hearing-a-case-on-the-prohibition-of-religion-of-jehovahs-witnesses\/"},"modified":"2022-12-19T21:37:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T18:37:31","slug":"day-2-report-the-supreme-court-is-hearing-a-case-on-the-prohibition-of-religion-of-jehovahs-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/day-2-report-the-supreme-court-is-hearing-a-case-on-the-prohibition-of-religion-of-jehovahs-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2: Report: the Supreme Court is hearing a case on the prohibition of religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
12:00<\/span><\/th>\n\n

The weather in Moscow is warm and sunny.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Near the entrance to the court a large number of people were formed.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Television journalists work.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Among those present, there is a calm, friendly atmosphere.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Noticeable increased security measures.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Directly at the entrance there is a bus with police officers.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0At the entrance is a thorough search.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Inside the building, no liquids are allowed to pass through.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Employees of the Supreme Court, organizing hearings, carry out their work professionally and in harmony.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Despite the large number of listeners, there are no failures.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

2:30 pm<\/span><\/th>\nThe hearing began with the defendants’ petition to suspend the hearing due to the fact that private complaints were filed against the court’s yesterday’s refusals to satisfy most of the 17 applications submitted.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The hearing must be suspended pending decisions on these complaints.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14:33<\/span><\/th>\nThe Ministry of Justice objects to the suspension of the hearings.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The court is removed to the advisory room.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14:37<\/span><\/th>\n\n

The court denies the motion to suspend the hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Omelchenko’s lawyer solicits the inclusion of materials that may indicate political motives for the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0These are the documents of foreign organizations, such as the UN, OSCE, official statements of human rights organizations, as well as archival documents.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

14:40<\/span><\/th>\n\n

The court decided to grant the application for the attachment of these materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

The court reports the essence of the matter and gives the floor to the Ministry of Justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

14:45<\/span><\/th>\nThe representative of the Ministry of Justice Borisov begins to expound the arguments that justify the necessity of banning all organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0She lists the decisions of the courts against the local religious organizations (MPOs) of Jehovah’s Witnesses.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:12<\/span><\/th>\n\n

Concluding his speech, the representative of the Ministry of Justice asks the court to liquidate all organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses, remove them from the register of legal entities and prohibit their activities.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Asks to confiscate property and turn the court’s decision to immediate execution (that is, do not wait for the decision to enter into legal force).<\/span><\/p>\n

The judge asks the representative of the Ministry of Justice a counter question: why does the Ministry of Justice ask both to liquidate the legal entity and prohibit their activities.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The judge is perplexed: how can you ban what does not exist.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0He clarifies whether the Ministry of Justice also demands that all unregistered groups be banned.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The representative of the Ministry of Justice explains that he does not ask them to be banned, because Jehovah’s Witnesses did not provide the department with information about unregistered groups.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

15:16<\/span><\/th>\nThe new clarifying question of the judge: on what grounds does the Ministry of Justice apply a pre-judicial approach to the Management Center, if the center was not involved in participation in the case.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The prejudice is applicable in the case of decisions that have already entered into force (that is, the court relies on them as already on the established fact) only with respect to the same subjects of law.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Accordingly, the decisions made by the courts in respect of MPOs can not have a prejudicial effect on a centralized organization.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:17<\/span><\/th>\nThe representative of the Ministry of Justice argues that the Administrative Center knew about these cases, and the lawyers of the center attended them.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:20<\/span><\/th>\nThe Ministry of Justice in its suit confirms the necessity of liquidation of religious organizations due to the fact that organizations, in their opinion, violate the rights of citizens.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The court asks the representative of Borisov the next clarifying question: which rights of citizens are violated?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Borisova says that this is the right to receive medical treatment.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0According to their data, organizations prevent citizens from receiving medical treatment.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0In response to a rumble in the hall, the judge asks those present to restrain emotions.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:24<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge asks if the Ministry of Justice has evidence of their allegations about medical treatment.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice is not ready to provide them.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The judge is again puzzled, because the Ministry of Justice most recently conducted a large-scale inspection of Jehovah’s Witnesses and, if such facts were, they should have been identified.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:25<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge asks the Justice Ministry to clarify their statement that the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses are a threat to public safety.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice speaks of a threat to an indefinite circle of persons.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3:30 pm<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge asks the representative of the Ministry of Justice if they ask to prohibit the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, whether the believers who have gathered for prayer will be under threat of criminal prosecution.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Ministry of Justice: yes, if the court finds them guilty of violating Art.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0282.2 UKRF.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:34<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge asks the representative of the Ministry of Justice about the Federal List of Extremist Materials (FSEM) of the Ministry of Justice of Russia.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The court is interested in the question: does the Ministry of Justice revise this list?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The representative of the Ministry of Justice informs the court in an uncertain voice that sometimes this list can be revised.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:39<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge gives the respondents the opportunity to ask questions to the Ministry of Justice.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:40<\/span><\/th>\nZhenkov’s lawyer first of all asks the court to refuse to accept a copy of the court’s decision, which the Justice Ministry presented to the court a few minutes ago.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The court decision describes the case when certain parents brought a sick child to the hospital.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Doctors diagnosed a low level of hemoglobin and offered treatment with medicines or a transfusion of donor blood.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Parents preferred medicines, but the hospital appealed to the court with a request to give her carte blanche for the use of donor blood.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The decision also mentions that there was no threat to life, it was a question of planned treatment.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The lawyer draws attention to the fact that in the court’s decision there is no mention of any of the organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:50<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge asks the representative of the Ministry of Justice: if there is no mention of Jehovah’s Witnesses, what does this document have to do with this case.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:53<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge shall postpone the determination of the attachment of this document.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:54<\/span><\/th>\nLawyer Zhenkov begins to ask questions to the representative of the Ministry of Justice.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The first question is: does the Justice Ministry have any information about any violations that were committed under the influence of the literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses that was submitted to the FSEM.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Answer from the Ministry’s representative: “No, we do not have such information.”<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15:57<\/span><\/th>\nLawyer Zhenkov specifies from the representative of the Ministry of Justice whether the respondent understands correctly that the Justice Ministry’s claims are reduced to three points: 1) import of extremist literature, 2) financing of MPOs, 3) failure to take effective measures to prevent extremist activity.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice confirms that this is a true understanding, but this should be added “the threat of violation of human and citizen’s rights.”<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4pm<\/span><\/th>\n\n

Lawyers are unsuccessfully trying to find out exactly what human rights violations are meant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Females are trying to clarify the point “the failure to take effective measures to prevent extremist activity.”<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0He asked whether the Ministry of Justice knew about the timely letters sent by the center of Jehovah’s Witnesses to all MROs about the inclusion of certain materials in the FSEM?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice knows.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The next question: what, in the opinion of the Ministry, would be an effective measure?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice does not know the exact answer to this question.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The lawyer asks the representative of the Ministry of Justice whether there is such a criterion of extremist activity as inaction.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0It’s obvious to everyone that there is no such criterion.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

16:10<\/span><\/th>\nZhenkov asks whether the Ministry of Justice knows that materials that are considered extremist constitute 0.1% of the entire literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice does not know this.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Is it known to the Ministry of Justice that the Rostov Regional Court, which recognized 34 publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses as extremist, at the same time refused to recognize the extremist dozens of others.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:19<\/span><\/th>\nZhenkov clarifies whether it is known to the Ministry of Justice that literature has not been imported to Russia for two years.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice knows this.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Then there is a natural question, why exactly in 2017 the Ministry of Justice raised the issue of liquidation.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice can not provide facts confirming that during the last 12 months the Management Center distributed “extremist” literature.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:13<\/span><\/th>\nThe Ministry of Justice informs that the date of entering materials into this list is not specified in the FEMC.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:24<\/span><\/th>\nThe judge asks the representative of the Ministry whether it is possible to file claims of the religious organization, as well as customs, for the fact that materials imported into the country that in the future will be considered extremist?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0How to know in advance what material will be included in the FEMC.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The representative of the Ministry of Justice: no way, just contact the FSEM.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4:30 pm<\/span><\/th>\nThe representative of the defendant Yuri Toporov is trying to find out what the Ministry of Justice puts into the concept of “the structural subdivision of the world organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses”.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0What is a “world organization”?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Is this some sort of legal entity?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice believes that no, it is a question of a certain canonical concept.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0What is a “structural unit”?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Is this a legal concept?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0No, rather a canonical connection.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The next question is: in what sense then does the Ministry of Justice use this term in relation to the LRO, saying that they are “structural subdivisions of the Management Center”?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0In canonical or legal?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The representative of the Ministry of Justice believes that this is the same.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:37<\/span><\/th>\nToporov is trying to find out whether the “extremist law” can be passed to the “structural subdivision” without making the organization itself.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice is forced to admit that a warning must be issued to the entire organization.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:40<\/span><\/th>\nThe logical question of Toporov: if a warning was issued to a local religious organization and not issued to the Management Center, then how can this local organization be the “structural unit” of the center?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0No way.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:42<\/span><\/th>\nThe Ministry of Justice now believes that issuing a warning to the “structural unit” is not prohibited by law, which means that the prosecutor’s office could do it.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0What is not forbidden is allowed.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The judge clarifies with the representative of the Ministry, were any of the notifications of the religious organization (the management center) then directed at least?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0There is no information that such notifications are sent.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:46<\/span><\/th>\nA new question from Toporov to the Ministry of Justice.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Does the law on combating extremism provide for the possibility of liquidating a “structural unit” without liquidating the organization itself?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The representative of the Ministry of Justice: “According to your interpretation, does not provide”.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The judge asks the plaintiff to accept the answer of the ministry in this form.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:53<\/span><\/th>\nQuestions to the Ministry of Justice are asked by the lawyer Omelchenko.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0He asks if there is a department in the Ministry of Justice capable of answering when a particular book appeared on the Federal List of Extremist Materials.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Justice Ministry believes that the answer to this question can be obtained through a judicial request.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:56<\/span><\/th>\nOmelchenko asks about federal forensic centers under the Russian Ministry of Justice.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0He points out that these centers came to diametrically opposite conclusions about the presence or absence of signs of extremism.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Question of Omelchenko: how could this be possible.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The representative of the Ministry does not know.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The next question is: why did the Justice Ministry support only the negative conclusions of the experts and did not support the positive conclusions?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Unknown.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Was the Ministry of Justice initiating a review of the decisions in cases when there was such a contradiction?<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0Representative of such facts are unknown.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:58<\/span><\/th>\nOmelchenko recalls that earlier today the court asked the Ministry of Justice whether the ministry initiated a review of the list of extremist materials after the amendments were made to the law, for example, that the Bible and quotations from it can not be recognized as extremist materials.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0There were no such initiatives on the part of the Ministry of Justice.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17:07<\/span><\/th>\nQuestions to the representative of the Ministry of Justice are given by the representative of the defendant Maxim Novakov.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0He is trying to find out if the Ministry of Justice knows the circumstances of those events that are attributed to Jehovah’s Witnesses as “extremist activity”.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0For example, do they know why for the searches of Jehovah’s Witnesses the special services were de-energizing whole blocks in which the liturgical buildings are located.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The Ministry of Justice does not know the facts.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0There are no other questions on the part of the defendant to the Ministry of Justice.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17:13<\/span><\/th>\nThe court announces a break in the court session until April 7, 2017 10:00.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0The entrance to the building will be open from 9:00.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12:00 The weather in Moscow is warm and sunny.\u00c2\u00a0Near the entrance to the court a large number of people were formed.\u00c2\u00a0Television journalists work.\u00c2\u00a0Among those present, there is a calm, friendly atmosphere.\u00c2\u00a0Noticeable increased security measures.\u00c2\u00a0Directly at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2847","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\/2847","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=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5757,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/5757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}