Two brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses recognized as extremist in Belgorod

The brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses "Son 'wants to reveal' father" and "Was life created" by Jehovah's Witnesses are banned in Belgorod.

March 4 2015 Oktyabrsky District Court of Belgorod acknowledged extremist materials brochure Jehovah's Witnesses "Son 'wants to open' father" and "Was life created". Later they are included in the federal list extremist materials under the number 2988.

Court agreed with the conclusions of the NRU experts BelSU, who considered the fact that in the pamphlet "Was Life Created" "The Book for All" was advertised (included in the Federal List of extremist materials under item 529) mass spread of extremist materials, " as well as inciting to reading a deliberately extremist literature, i.e. to the implementation extremist activities ." The content of the brochure "The son" wants discover the “father”, according to the authors expertise, " generally aimed at inciting religious discord ."

Note that the experts broke the law by allowing legal interpretation of the content brochure, which is within the competence court. In addition, the prohibition of material for extremism on the grounds that it recommended reading forbidden the material is more than controversial, and the interpretation as a mass distribution of the recommendation to read the material is not at all based on the law. In addition, reading extremist literature, with point of view of Russian legislation, does not apply to extremist activities.

Recall in general we consider the persecution Jehovah's Witnesses and the ban on their texts for extremism illegal and perceived these actions as religious discrimination.

Sources

• Prosecutor's Office of Belgorod Demands Recognition of Three More Brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses as Extremist // Center "Owl". 2014. December 11.
• The federal list of extremist materials has grown to item 3008 // Center "Owl". 2015. August 26.