The court fined the editor-in-chief of Religion and Rights for publishing about Jehovah's Witnesses

The magistrate of court district No. 100 in Moscow fined the editor-in-chief of the publication “Religion and Law” Stanislav Kulov for 4 thousand rubles due to the lack of indication that the organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses are prohibited in the Russian Federation in the publication about the followers of this teaching. The publication itself reports this.

The reason for initiating the case was the announcement of the presentation of a report by the SOVA Information and Analytical Center on freedom of conscience. The report spoke in particular about the intensification of political persecution against Jehovah's Witnesses.

On June 15, the court found the editor-in-chief guilty of disseminating information about an organization recognized as extremist without indicating its ban (Part 2 of Article 13.15 of the Administrative Code). According to the court and Roskomnadzor, the editors of Religion and Law should have mentioned the decision of the Supreme Court to ban the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses.

According to the publication itself, this instruction was not required, since the publication spoke about citizens professing a religion, and not about organizations: “Such an instruction is prescribed only when it comes directly to a prohibited organization, but cannot be applied to cases of mentioning the creed of Jehovah’s Witnesses, or citizens professing the said creed.”

On November 3, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court upheld Kulov’s fine,reports the SOVA information and analytical center.

In court, lawyers, as well as Doctor of Philosophy Mikhail Shakhov, who was interrogated as a specialist, drew the court’s attention to the fact that the name of a religious association is not identical to the concept of religious doctrine. However, the court did not agree with them.

• On April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” as an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities in Russia. In August, all Jehovah's Witnesses organizations were added to the list of prohibited organizations. After this, a stream of criminal cases began.