The ECHR communicated the complaints of Novgorod Jehovah's Witnesses fined for “illegal missionary work”

The ECtHR communicated complaints from Novgorod Jehovah's Witnesses who were fined for preaching on the streets of the city without an appropriate certificate.

On March 29, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated complaints against the decisions of the Russian courts of Tatyana Mandrichenko and Pavel Kotlyarenko, Jehovah's Witnesses, fined under Part 4 of Art. 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (implementation of missionary activity in violation of the requirements of legislation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and religious associations) for preaching on the streets of the city without an appropriate certificate.

Mandrichenko and Kotlyarenko were fined 6,000 and 8,000 rubles, respectively, for preaching on Sofia Square in Veliky Novgorod. They failed to challenge the fine in Russia: on July 5, 2017, the judge of the Novgorod District Court of the Novgorod Region upheld the rulings of the justice of the peace of Court District No. 35 of the Novgorod Court District on bringing them to administrative responsibility. The Strasbourg Court united the claims of the believers as identical. In connection with the claims of Mandrichenko and Kotlyarenko, the ECtHR raised questions before Russia as to whether the decisions of the Russian courts violated the applicants' rights guaranteed by Art. 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation, and art. 9 of the Convention, which ensures the right to freedom of conscience, as well as whether the applicants could have foreseen that the corresponding provision of the law would be brought against them, whether the sanctions applied to the applicants were proportionate to their act and justified, whether they pursued a legitimate aim. In addition, the ECHR asked whether the courts distinguished between "missionary activity" carried out by a group and individual preaching, and whether they cited any facts in support of their point of view.

Sources

• Decision on the administrative case No. 12-419 / 2017 (5-246 / 2017) dated July 5, 2017 // Website of the Novgorod District Court of the Novgorod Region. 2018.
• Decision on administrative case No. 12-420/2017 (5-245/2017) dated July 5, 2017 // Website of the Novgorod District Court of the Novgorod Region. 2018.
• applications nos. 7949/18 and 8475/18 Tatyana Aleksandrovna MANDRICHENKO against Russia and Pavel Viktorovich KOTLYARENKO against Russia // Website of the ECtHR. May 2018