The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to satisfy the complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses against the decision to liquidate the Taganrog community

On December 8, 2009, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dismissed the complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses (Taganrog) against the decision of the Rostov Regional Court to liquidate the local community and recognize a number of publications of this organization as extremist. Thus, this decision came into force.

During the process, it was also denied satisfaction of a private complaint of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses (the central organization of Witnesses) to be recognized as an interested party.

Recall that in our opinion, the decision of the Rostov court is unlawful. In essence, the religious organization was banned not for extremism, for which no real signs (for example, calls for violence or propaganda of the inferiority of representatives of other religions) were found in the literature examined by experts, but because their religion is different from others and that Jehovah’s Witnesses postulate their own exclusivity and correctness - like representatives of any other religion. (See the text of the examination .)

Neither the promotion of exclusivity, nor the "undermining of respect" and negative statements towards other religions, nor even the notorious refusal of blood transfusions - the grounds found by experts and used as arguments by the prosecutor's office - have nothing to do with extremism and cannot serve as a reason for banning the organization .

According to representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses, they intend to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Inc. inf.