The head of the Jehovah's Witnesses community in Birobidzhan failed to challenge the fine

The leader of the Birobidzhan community of Jehovah's Witnesses failed to challenge the decision of the district court on a fine for distributing extremist literature.

On June 8, 2016, the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region announced that it had considered the complaint of the chairman of the committee of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses against the decision of the Birobidzhan District Court to find him guilty under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution of extremist materials). The decision was left unchanged, the head of the community will have to pay a fine of 3 thousand rubles.

Three books and seven brochures, identified as extremist, were found by law enforcement at a meeting place of the Birobidzhan community of Jehovah's Witnesses on January 26, 2016. The believers stated that the literature had been planted and decided to appeal against the decision on administrative punishment of the head of the community.

In the summer of 2015, the head of the Birobidzhan community of Jehovah's Witnesses was already brought to administrative responsibility under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Then the court ordered him to pay a large fine for possession of 11 banned publications, and the prosecutor's office issued a warning to the community about the inadmissibility of carrying out extremist activities. A similar warning was also announced to the head of the Birobidzhan community in the summer of 2014.

We consider the practice of banning the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses for extremism to be unlawful and regard the persecution of this religious movement in Russia as discrimination.

Sources

• The head of one of the religious organizations in Birobidzhan was brought to administrative responsibility for the distribution and storage of extremist materials // Website of the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region. 2016. June 8.