The ECHR accepted for consideration the complaint of 395 Russian communities of Jehovah's Witnesses

On May 7, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated the complaint of 395 Russian communities of Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious organization banned and recognized as extremist in Russia in 2017. This was announced on May 28 by the SOVA center.

The complaint relates to the decision of the Supreme Court to ban and liquidate organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as to transfer their ownership to the state.

The ECtHR raised questions before Russia about a possible violation of the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights on freedom of religion (Article 9), freedom of assembly (Article 11), the prohibition of discrimination (Article 14), the right to a fair trial (Article 6) and the protection of property (Article 1 protocol 1).

Recall that in December 2017, the ECHR partially communicated and promised to consider, as a matter of priority, the complaint of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and its chairman Vasily Kalin, challenging the warning about the inadmissibility of extremist activities issued to the Administrative Center by the Prosecutor General's Office in March 2016, as well as the decision of the Supreme Court on prohibition of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses.

OWL

• The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized Jehovah's Witnesses as an extremist organization and banned it in the country in April 2017. This was done following a lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice, which considered that believers were distributing extremist literature. The Jehovah's Witnesses could not challenge this decision.