Translated in the wrong place

The Leningrad Regional Court upheld the recognition of the Bible in the translation of Jehovah's Witnesses "extremist material." This was reported on the website of the religious organization.

The hearing was attended by about 30 people, including representatives of the British embassies, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA.

The basis of the judicial was the examination of the publication "Holy Scripture. Translation of the New World." When asked why the PNM cannot be considered the Bible, one of the experts appointed by the court said that the publication does not have a note "on the blessing of the patriarch" and that the book does not coincide textually with a synodal translation. Experts also noted that the text of the PNM does not correspond to some dogmas of the church.

The defense indicated in court the obvious signs of the bias and incompetence of experts. However, the court rejected the application for an independent examination and upheld the decision of the court of first instance.

"Today, our brothers have exhausted all the possibilities for protection within the Russian legal system, so the case will be referred to the European Court of Human Rights," the Jehovah's Witnesses said in a statement ..

On August 17, the Vyborg City Court satisfied the claims of the Leningrad-Finnish transport prosecutor on recognition of the Holy Scriptures. The Translation of the New World, as well as the Bible brochures and its main theme, "science instead of the Bible?" and "how to improve health. 5 simple rules."

On July 16, 2015, it became known that 2016 PNM copies were detained by customs when trying to introduce them to Russia from Finland. 3 copies of the publication were seized for verification for extremism. In February 2016, the lawsuit on the ban on the seized literature was filed in court. On March 15, at the first meeting, the judge agreed to attract the Jehovah's community as an interested party. In April 2016, the court in Vyborg appointed a religious examination of the publication in the lawsuit of the prosecutor's office.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 2015, at the initiative of Vladimir Putin , an amendment was made to counteract extremism, which prohibits the search for extremism in the canons of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. The new norm read: "The Bible, the Qur'an, Tanya and Ganjur, their content and quotes from them cannot be recognized as extremist materials."

On March 23, the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia were suspended as a security measure before considering the Ministry of Justice’s claim for the prohibition of a religious organization. On April 20, the Judge of the Armed Forces Yuri Ivanenko satisfied the claim of the department . The decision, indicated that in terms of the termination of the activities of the managerial center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and all local communities, it is subject to immediate execution, that is, it comes into force before consideration of the appeal.

On August 17, the collegium of the Supreme Court as part of Galina Manyukhina, Vladimir Zaitsev and Vladimir Popov confirmed the decision to recognize the extremist organization and its ban. It entered into force in full. On the same day, the Ministry of Justice introduced the managerial center and 395 of its local communities in the register of extremist organizations.