Two top Russian courts ban Jehovah's Witnesses from Internet

[Guest Kurt]

RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT AGREES THAT WEBSITE MAY BE RULED EXTREMIST FOR CONTENTS OF A SINGLE PAGE.

Lenizdat.ru, 31 January 2016
http://print.lenizdat.ru/articles/1136259/

A decision about ruling a website to be extremist on the basis of materials that are contained on only one of its pages does not violate the constitution. The Constitutional Court of the RF came to this conclusion. A similar conclusion had already been made previously by the Supreme Court.
 
The decision was made in response to an appeal by the company Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York (it conducts economic affairs of the Jehovah's Witnesses). The organization is also known as the Watchtower Society.
 
In December 2014 a number of Jehovah's Witnesses' materials were ruled by the Supreme Court to be extremist. The topic involved three books: "What does the Bible really teach?" "Draw near to Jehovah," and "Come, follow me." In addition, the decision applied to the entire website of the organization, jw.org, as a whole.
 
"Recognizing as extremist only a portion of informational materials of an Internet site does not eliminate the threat of subsequent posting on it of similar materials," the court's decision says.
 
Representatives of the Watchtower Society tried to challenge this position in the Constitutional Court, but, according to a report from Fontanka.ru, it was unsuccessful.
 
"Not only individual informational materials posted on the Internet network and pages of the site on the Internet network may be ruled extremist, but also the entire website as a whole. The disputed legal regulation, conditioned on the necessity of guaranteeing the security of the state and the protection of the rights and liberties of an unrestricted circle of persons, may not be viewed as violating the constitutional rights of the plaintiff," the Constitutional Court's decision says.
 
We recall that this is not the first instance when Jehovah's Witnesses have challenged the decisions of Russian courts. In 2004, a court in Moscow disbanded their congregation and forbade its activity. The congregation was found guilty specifically of recruitment of children, encouraging believers to break with their families, and encouraging suicide and rejection of medical care.
 
In 2010 the European Court for Human Rights found this decision of the court illegal and required Russia to pay the victims 70 thousand Euros. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REJECTS APPEAL OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ON MECHANISM OF PROHIBITION OF WEBSITES FOR EXTREMISM

SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 1 February 2016
 
The Constitutional Court denied the Jehovah's Witnesses who were challenging several provisions of Russian laws on combating extremist activity and on information.
 
On 13 November 2015 the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York (the parent structure of Jehovah's Witnesses, registered in the USA) filed an appeal in the Russian Constitutional Court against provisions of federal laws "On combating extremist activity" and "On information, information technology and on protection of information." The reason for this was the confirmation by the Supreme Court of the prohibition of the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses, which was imposed by the Central district court of Tver in September 2013.
 
In the appeal Jehovah's Witnesses asked the court to examine the constitutionality of a number of provisions of laws which were the bases of the decision of the Tver court and the Supreme Court. First, the decision, referring to part 3 of article 1 and article 13 of the law "On combating extremist actions" pointed out that the law does not apply to foreign organizations and ruling a website as extremist does not affect the rights and legal interests of the foreign Watchtower Society, and thus its involvement in the trial is not required. In the opinion of the plaintiff such a procedure violates the principle of equality of all before the law and the court and it violates the constitutional rights of foreign organizations to protection of intellectual property and to judicial defense.
 
This position is supported by the conclusions of an expert analysis that was conducted by the senior scientific associate of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Irina Lukianova. Non-involvement in the trial of the Watchtower Society is, in the final analysis, a violation of the right to fair trial (article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and the reversal by the Supreme Court of the decision made on the results of an investigation with the participation of the owner of the website is evidence of the violation of the right to effective restoration of rights (article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), the expert indicated.
 
Second, according to the provisions of the same articles, it is permitted to consider a whole website to be extremist, even if only a few materials considered to be extremist are posted on it. In reviewing the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses' website, the Supreme Court pointed out that its "partial" recognition as extremist "implies a threat of further distribution" of extremist information on it, although the prohibited materials at that moment had been removed from the website. At the same time, a ban on a variety of materials on the largest social networks, which are much more popular than the Jehovah's Witnesses' site, does not lead to the blocking of social networks as a whole. Finally, the law does not at all define in which cases it is necessary to prohibit whole websites by court order and in which cases it is necessary to prohibit individual pages and in which cases blocking is done out-of-court. The Jehovah's Witnesses indicate that such legal indefiniteness entails a threat of a discriminatory approach, which violates the rights and liberties of citizens guaranteed by the constitution.
 
Third, the appeal points out that the laws do not contain procedures for removal of a website from the register of prohibited websites and the federal list of extremist materials, which leads to the restriction of freedom of speech.
 
On 22 December 2015, the Constitutional Court issued a decision on the Jehovah's Witnesses' appeal. It says, specifically, that "recognition of a website on the Internet to be extremist on the whole is possible both in the case of systematic posting on it of extremist materials and in the case where such a site was specifically created by a public or religious association or another organization which are considered to be extremist and whose activity is prohibited on the territory of the Russian federation for the purpose of disseminating information of an extremist nature." At the same time the Constitutional Court clarified that "in resolving the issues of recognizing material on an Internet site or a part of it to be extremist, the court should take into account the basic principles established by the federal legislature for combating extremist activity and proceed from the necessity of using the most effective way of combating extremism in the actual circumstances established by it, including removal of the causes and conditions facilitating the mass distribution of information that has previously been ruled to be extremist."  As regards the removal of websites considered extremist from the federal list of extremist materials and from the integrated automated information system, as connected with overcoming the finality of judicial actions that have taken legal effect, the Constitutional Court limited itself to the consideration that it "is possible within the procedure provided by procedural legislation, . . . while the contested legal provisions, just like other norms of the said federal laws, do not establish the procedure of judicial investigation, including determining the participants of such an investigation and their procedural status." Thus the appeal was denied and important questions of the implementation of the law raised in it were left without an answer.

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Prosecutor's lawsuit to declare Jehovah's Witnesses extremist

PROVINCIAL COURT BEGINS CONSIDERATION OF CASE OF LOCAL JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
by Evgeny Filippov

BelPressa [Belgorod], 2 February 2016

http://www.belpressa.ru/news/news/oblastnoj-sud-nachal-rassmotrenie-dela-mestnyh-svidetelej-iegovy11865/
 
The prosecutor of Belgorod province filed in court a lawsuit for ruling the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Belgorod extremist and for its liquidation and removal from the register of the Ministry of Justice.
 
Representatives of the prosecutor's office consider that it is necessary to liquidate the religious organization in accordance with article 9 of the federal law "On combating extremist activity."
 
During the session on 2 February, Judge Irina Naumova of the Belgorod provincial court received a number of petitions from participants in the trial.
 
"I ask the court to attach to the case religious brochures 'Sacred Scripture—New World Translation' on the last page of which there is a reference to an Internet resource that is prohibited in our country," the deputy chief of the department of the prosecutor's office of the province, Valentina Brigadina, petitioned. "In addition, it is necessary to attach the brochure 'How to recognize true Christians' as extremist material that is contained in the federal list of the Ministry of Justice. And also 'Armageddon. What is it? When will it come?' ,'Is Satan real?', and 'Music. How does it affect you?', as publications referring readers to an Internet link that is included in the list of extremist materials."
 
Representatives of the regional prosecutor's office also petitioned for summoning and questioning seven witnesses who, in their opinion, have suffered from the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses.
 
Lawyers for the defendant—the leader of the Belgorod religious organization, Alexander Shchendrygin—did not agree with the representatives of the plaintiff and asked the court not to attach to the case the religious brochures cited above, as they have nothing to do with the substance of the lawsuit.
 
"Several editions of the book 'Sacred Scripture—New World Translation' exist and I do not know just which the side of representatives of the provincial prosecutor's office is talking about," the attorney of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, Anton Omelchenko, noted. "So far as I know, there is no reference in the brochure to websites that are banned in Russia."
 
In addition the side of the defense filed more than ten petitions: from attachment of documents confirming the harmlessness for society of the religious teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses to summons to court of activists of the local religious congregation. Most of the petitions of the defendant were rejected by the court. The trial will continue on 3 February.
 
This is not the first instance when Belgorod Jehovists faced such accusations. In March 2015, by decision of the October district court of Belgorod, religious brochures "The Son wants to reveal the Father" and "Was life created?" were ruled to be extremist literature.
 
On 5 February, the Belgorod provincial court will begin consideration of a similar lawsuit, but against the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Stary Oskol.

 

[John Houston]

Now come the push. The publications are extreme, the website, so now those who promote these things are to be classed extremists. Let all of us of the brotherhood give this considerable time in prayer, for strength and comfort for those undergoing these  trials. Times are dark and growing darker.

[Arauna]

Cold war has been back for a long time!   Journalists, human rights workers, human rights lawyers and oligarchs are jailed and some disappear.... Same situation in China.... This has been going on for about 11 years..... Many of our brothers are suffering...