{"id":2905,"date":"2017-06-03T12:03:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-03T12:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2017\/06\/03\/jehovahs-witnesses-in-russia-have-ban-appeal-date-set-but-have-little-hope-of-success\/"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:25:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T07:25:29","slug":"jehovahs-witnesses-in-russia-have-ban-appeal-date-set-but-have-little-hope-of-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/jehovahs-witnesses-in-russia-have-ban-appeal-date-set-but-have-little-hope-of-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia Have Ban Appeal Date Set But Have Little Hope of Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>An appeal against a ban of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia has been set by the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Supreme Court for July 17. The liquidation of the Christian denomination\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 395 local religious chapters in the country was put in place by Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s justice ministry in March and upheld by the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Supreme Court on April 20. After receiving the court\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written decision, the group launched an appeal a month later.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Supreme Court accepted the justice ministry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s verdict that Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses violated Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anti-extremism law, putting it into the same category as organizations like the Islamic State group (ISIS). Among the arguments used in the court hearing were that Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses&#8217; belief in refusing blood transfusions made it extremist. That stance has been credited with encouraging doctors to develop less risky alternatives to using blood.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The group has alleged that it was prohibited from mounting a real defense in the Supreme Court case. Notably, it criticized the judge for refusing to hear evidence concerning bans of its local religious chapters.<\/div>\n<div>\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/eOuy0F1.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"431\" \/>\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The basis for the liquidation of our organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s center was totally based on the ban of local religious organizations,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a spokesman for Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia, told Newsweek recently. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All cases were fabricated and on that fabricated evidence now you want to ban the whole religion in Russia? How is it not connected to the case?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A big part of the appeal will rest on trying to get that evidence heard, Sivulskiy added<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Yet the group, which has operated in the country since 1991 and counts 175,000 members among its ranks, has said it does not hold out much hope that the decision will be overturned.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very, very little [hope],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sivulskiy said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Usually the court decision is upheld in most cases. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little hope. We have some hope of course. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that there is no case from the ministry of justice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side. But from our side, it is well based on law, with solid arguments.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The ban, Sivulskiy suggested, was not based on the interpretation of the court, but on a decision that goes right to the top of Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s government and President Vladimir Putin.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not this court, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about justice, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about a fair court hearing because even everyone who observed it said we won already, but even so we lost,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have no big hope for the next level, only if some political wind will change somehow.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Speaking after the Supreme Court decision, the chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Thomas J. Reese, told Newsweek that it represented the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paranoia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the Russian government.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Since the decision, Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses have reported being harassed by police, while aDanish citizen was arrested after taking part in a private worship service and faces up to 10 years in prison.<\/div>\n<div>\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>http:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-ban-appeal-619955\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An appeal against a ban of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia has been set by the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Supreme Court for July 17. The liquidation of the Christian denomination\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 395 local religious chapters in the country was&hellip;<\/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-2905","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\/2905","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=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5627,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions\/5627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}