{"id":6067,"date":"2022-02-23T13:31:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T10:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/?p=6067"},"modified":"2022-02-23T13:31:03","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T10:31:03","slug":"russia-faces-fine-for-violating-fundamental-rights-of-jehovahs-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/russia-faces-fine-for-violating-fundamental-rights-of-jehovahs-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia faces fine for violating \u2018fundamental rights\u2019 of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Russia\u2019s mistreatment of 14 Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses more than a decade ago violated their \u201cfundamental rights to freedom of religion and liberty,\u201d the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6068\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6068\" style=\"width: 878px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6068 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"878\" height=\"585\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/images.jpg 878w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/images-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/images-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6068\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses attend a court session in Perm, Russia, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. A court in the Russian city of Perm handed suspended sentences to five members of the Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses on Wednesday in connection with their beliefs. Russia banned the Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses in 2017 and declared it an extremist group, exposing all of its followers to prosecution. All five were handed suspended sentences between 2.5 and 7 years. (AP Photo\/Anastasia Yakovleva)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The rulings consolidated six cases against Russia challenging the validity of search warrants that prompted raids of several private homes and a place of worship, the strip-searches of two women following their arrest while preaching, confiscation of personal items and the refusal of authorities to return those items.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Masked and armed officers of Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service (FSB) often perpetrated the raids, officials of the Christian sect said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the judicial body, which is Europe\u2019s highest human rights court, the Russian government must pay more than $112,000 in fines as compensation. A three-judge panel of the ECHR rendered the judgments, which cannot be appealed and are treated as final. The Council of Europe\u2019s Committee of Ministers will monitor whether Russia follows the rulings and pays the fines.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since these violations took place between 2010 and 2012, Russia has declared the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses an extremist group, ordered the liquidation of its registered operations and heightened its arrests and prosecutions of members. Several have received harsh prison sentences \u2014 longer than those typically given kidnappers and rapists.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThese judgments set a critical precedent that Russia has been unjustly and unlawfully raiding the homes of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses \u2014 1,700 since 2017,\u201d spokesman Jarrod Lopes said. \u201cAny new home raids based solely on the owner\u2019s religious beliefs are now considered illegal and in violation of the European Convention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia\u2019s mistreatment of 14 Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses more than a decade ago violated their \u201cfundamental rights to freedom of religion and liberty,\u201d the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday. The rulings consolidated six cases against&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6067","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=6067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6069,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6067\/revisions\/6069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}