LIVE BLOG: Jehovah's Witnesses Appeal Russian Supreme Court Ruling

[bruceq]

They already did with Dvorkin and the anti-cultists venom against us saying EXACTLY what you James just said. Except Putin unknowingly already destroyed that entire concept that we destroy families just last month with the award given to a Witness family for "family values". But they don't care as this is all political.

[bruceq]

News Alerts

 

BREAKING NEWS | Russian Supreme Court Rejects Appeal by Jehovah’s Witnesses

 

Today, the Appellate Chamber of Russia’s Supreme Court ruled against Jehovah’s Witnesses, upholding the April 20 decision to liquidate their Administrative Center and effectively ban their worship. Despite this outcome, we are confident that Jehovah will continue to support our brothers in Russia. (Hebrews 13:6) Please continue to “carry on prayer” for them.—2 Thessalonians 3:1

JW.org

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

People don't burn others at the stake because they are rational... they do it based on how they FEEL!

Reality is that the Russians .... FEEL .... that JWs are extremist with an iron fist in a velvet fur glove.

If there is ANYBODY on Earth that understands that, it is the Russians who grew up under Soviet tyranny, where families were turned against each other.

I hope the Court will, in it's ruling(s) explain the reasons WHY they ruled the way they did.

If so ... then we will know.

[bruceq]

Supreme Court upholds decision liquidating Jehovah's Witnesses

RUSSIAN SUPREME COURT CONFIRMS BAN OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

Portal-Credo.Ru, 17 July 2017

 

The Russian Supreme Court ruled that the liquidation of the organization "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses In Russia," because of the recognition that its activity is "extremist," is legal, RIA Novosti reports.

 

"The Judicial College of the Supreme Court of Russia resolved to turn down the appellate complaint of the organization against the order of its liquidation," the decision of the court says.

 

In April the Supreme Court found the Jehovah's Witnesses to be an "extremist organization," confiscated its property, liquidated it and banned its activity on the territory of the country.

 

Subsequently the European Union and a number of states and international organization spoke out in defense of the organization. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 July 2017)

 

SUPREME COURT DECISION ON LIQUIDATION OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN RUSSIA TAKES LEGAL EFFECT

by Oleg Sivozhelezov

RAPSI, 17 July 2017

 

The Russian Supreme Court found to be legal the decision concerning the liquidation of the religious organization "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" and 395 local divisions within its structure, a RAPSI correspondent reports on Monday from the courtroom.

 

The Supreme Court declined the appellate complaint of the Jehovah's Witnesses against the decision recognizing the religious organization as extremist, banning its activity, and liquidating all local divisions within its structure.

 

The decision of the first instance of the Supreme Court, which granted the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice, has taken legal effect.

 

The religious organization reacted negatively to the fact of filing an administrative lawsuit for liquidation in the Supreme Court; in particular the opinion was expressed that such action is aimed at infringing the rights of citizens to freedom of religious confession. Since the issue concerns the Russia-wide "Administrative Center," the case directly affects about 400 registered local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and also applies to all 2,277 religious groups throughout the country, uniting 175,000 adherents of Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

Jehovah's Witnesses is an international religious organization with headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. As reported on the website of the Jehovists, Witnesses have existed in Russia more than 100 years. Beginning in 2004 a number of congregations and local divisions of Jehovah's Witnesses in the regions were found to be extremist—in Belgorod, Samara, Rostov, and Orel provinces and in other constituent entities of the Russian federation. (tr. by PDS, posted 17, July 2017)

 

SUPREME COURT TURNS DOWN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES. THEY PREPARE APPEALS TO EUROPEAN COURT

Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 17 July 2017

 

On 17 July 2017, the Russian Supreme Court missed its last chance to restore right and justice for 175 thousand citizens of Russia who profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. It took a panel of three judges of the Supreme Court less than an hour of conference in order to leave without change the decision made earlier by Judge Yury Ivanenko for liquidating and banning all registered organizations of this religion without exception.

 

Inasmuch as there are no more effective domestic Russian means of legal defense, believers will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and other international organizations. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 July 2017)

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

.

... which by law, the Russians have NO OBLIGATION to honor their (ECHR) rulings.

Prior to just recently,  Jehovah''s Witnesses were in Russia for at least a half century.

... ALL OF THIS... all of this ... could have been avoided if we had just treated the Brothers and Sisters decently.

[bruceq]

"Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman David Semonian said in a statement that “it’s very concerning that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, powerful elements within Russia continue to frame our organization as extremist.”

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/russian-supreme-court-upholds-ban-on-jehovahs-witnesses/

 

[bruceq]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russian-supreme-court-upholds-ban-on-jehovahs-witnesses/2017/07/17/5ef0a334-6b20-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html

https://www.kyivpost.com/russia/jehovahs-witnesses-intend-appeal-echr-ruling-abolish-organization.html

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/russian-court-confirms-jehovahs-witnesses-ban-183623628.html

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

I don't worry so much about Satan the Devil, as I worry about clueless men trying to consolidate their own power and self-appointed authority, and who and how many they are willing to hurt to do that.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

2 minutes ago, tromboneck said:

who do you think is behind all of this?

... all of what?

I expect NOTHING from the world, so I do not care about that .. we HAVE to just endure that.

I only care about how we treat each other in the Truth.

[bruceq]

World Religion News:

http://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/exclusive-interview-jehovahs-witnesses-banned-russia-court-ruling-upheld-today

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES BANNED IN RUSSIA; COURT RULING UPHELD TODAY:

[bruceq]

 

COMMENTARY: FOR THEM IT'S A LONG WAY TO THE SANHEDRIN

Appellate instance of the Russian Supreme Court wearily rubber-stamped absurd decision about banning and liquidating Jehovah's Witnesses

by Anton Chivchalov

for Portal-Credo.Ru, 17 July 2017

 

The session of the appellate instance of the Supreme Court of the RF, which considered today the appeal of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia for a ban of the organization, which occurred on 20 April, naturally produced no miracle. The session began with the rejection of all (!) petitions of the respondent (and they were not a few, although they were extremely legally crafted), after which the court simply "galloped around Europe" and issued a "verdict." The occasional statements by the lawyer for the Ministry of Justice, Svetlana Borisova, were extremely brief, and the court had no questions for her. In the end the panel of three judges left the decision of 20 April without changes, liquidating the Administrative Center and all 395 local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses. Now they face the process of confiscation of property.

 

Among the petitions that the court did not want to examine were completely new cases of attacks on believers, violations of their constitutional and simply elementary human rights, attacks of vandalism against them, and so forth. Believers have been fired from their job, harassed in schools, deprived of rights to alternative civilian service, had their gas and electricity cut off and their homes set afire, and have even been beaten. All of this was the direct consequence of the Supreme Court's decision of 20 April. People turned out to be second-class citizens in their own country, without any kind of rights, and the attorneys wanted to describe this at the supreme judicial platform of the country, without success.

 

Equally unsuccessful turned out to be the repeated attempt to involve in the case specialists—religious studies scholars and linguists—and also to question numerous witnesses of the fabrication of evidence and plants of kompromat, seemingly designed to show the "extremism" of Witnesses. It turned out that the court was not interested in any of this. The lawyer for the Ministry of Justice, on her part, confined herself to a couple of standard phrases about the great danger of the Jehovah's Witnesses for society and the state, again, as three months ago, not introducing any evidence of that danger other than vague phrases.

 

The attorneys also were not able to get from the court an answer to the question why it was ignoring the fact that in the case there was not a single victim and not a bit of evidence that some one of the Jehovah's Witnesses delivered "extremist" literature to others. And it was the "extremist" literature that was the alpha and omega of the whole accusation. The Ministry of Justice had no other arguments. It should be remembered that the whole case to and fro was based only on two decisions of provincial courts: the Rostov provincial court of 11 September 2009 and the Supreme Court of the republic of Altai of 27 January 2010. It was these two courts that inserted into the prohibited list 52 publications on the basis of which the entire subsequent whirl of repressions unwound.

 

Lawyers for the respondent tried in vain to get from the Supreme Court the possibility of involving in the case those 395 local religious organizations that have been banned, but for some reason they were not even allowed to participate in the hearings. How is it possible, the lawyers asked, that people are being judged behind their backs and are not given the right to a defense? This violates all known and most elementary legal norms. Attorney Yury Toporov even resorted to gospel parallels: "Jesus Christ was judged and convicted by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme court. It was an unjust trial. Illegal. But even it did not dare to judge Jesus without his participation. But the judge of the first instance decided to act in this way." And the court in the next instance also acted in this way.

 

Although lawyers for the respondent have already noted that they plan to file an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights, the believers must prepare for the confiscation of their property. The court in Strasbourg will be slow, especially if one recalls that dozens of appeals of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses have been lying there for a long time without significant movement. The court could consider the case on an accelerated basis in view of new circumstances, but here it is not superfluous to recall that in 2015 Russia adopted legislation permitting it to ignore decisions of the ECHR under certain conditions.

 

The last time when something similar happened in Russia was almost 100 years ago, in 1918. At that time the government of bolsheviks decided to confiscate the property of a huge religious organization, the Orthodox Church, and to subject its members to repressions. In the 1990s, many believers, including Jehovah's Witnesses, were rehabilitated as victims of political repressions. And now history is repeating itself. Who will it affect next? Jehovah's Witnesses clearly will not be the only victims of the new machine of repressions, which is only slightly altered for the twenty-first century, but works on all those same tried and proven old-fashioned principles. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 July 2017)

[TrueTomHarley]

1 hour ago, tromboneck said:

who are the "clueless men" that you refer to? Are they the Soviet leaders or someone else?

Better back off, Trom. Just wait till you hear his answer.

 

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I hope the Court will, in it's ruling(s) explain the reasons WHY they ruled the way they did.

Since they haven't explained anything else, I wouldn't hold my breath.