{"id":6260,"date":"2022-05-03T10:40:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T07:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/?p=6260"},"modified":"2022-05-03T10:40:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T07:40:49","slug":"russian-ban-on-jehovahs-witnesses-hits-the-five-year-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/russian-ban-on-jehovahs-witnesses-hits-the-five-year-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian ban on Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses hits the five-year mark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">APRIL 20, 2022 marked five years since Russia\u2019s systematic persecution of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses began.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6261\" src=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MjAhHyz.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"749\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MjAhHyz.png 749w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/MjAhHyz-300x151.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 749px) 100vw, 749px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since then, some 400 of the Witnesses\u2019 legal entities, including houses of worship, have been shut down. More than 1,740 homes have been raided. Despite a persistent international outcry from human rights bodies, Russia has imprisoned over 320 Witnesses, with over 80 still in custody.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Over 600 Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, including 40 men and women over the age of 70, have been charged criminally. During the 2017 Supreme Court hearing, the Russian government claimed that although it was liquidating the legal entities of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, individual Witnesses would be free to practice their faith. However, the government\u2019s claim of allowing freedom to worship has been inconsistent with its actions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Andrew Wood, former British ambassador to Russia, said of the Witnesses in a statement: \u201cTheir arrest, ill treatment, and confinement are a breach of elementary human rights together with the infringement of the freedom of all souls to seek their path to the truths of religion as best they may. The targeting of particularly vulnerable people of whatever gender or age adds to the injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>APRIL 20, 2022 marked five years since Russia\u2019s systematic persecution of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses began. Since then, some 400 of the Witnesses\u2019 legal entities, including houses of worship, have been shut down. More than 1,740 homes&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6260","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\/6260","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=6260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6262,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6260\/revisions\/6262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}