Jehovah's Witnesses' warship building set on fire in Budyonnovsk

In the city of Budyonnovsk, Stavropol Territory, the worship building of the local community of Jehovah's Witnesses was set on fire. Examination has established that it was arson; besides, traces were detected of numerous previous attempts to burn the building down. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Grigory Martynov, representative of the press service of the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

The fire in the Kingdom Hall (as believers name their worship buildings), which can house 160 believers, happened at night of March 20, 2010. Nobody suffered; however, the ceiling, interior and visitors' armchairs were burned down. The damage made about 1 million roubles. Now, the fire-technical examination denied the version that electric wire malfunction could cause the fire.

It was established that the malefactors penetrated to the attic through the door located above the fire safety staircase and set some incendiary mix on fire. Besides, earlier arson attempts were found in the attic.

Alexander Gaponov, Chairman of the local religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Budyonnovsk, expressed the general feelings of local believers by saying: "We've put our funds, efforts and souls into this hall. Here, people learnt to live in peace with their neighbours. Sad to say, but now aggression is escalated against us - 'dissidents', - which pushes certain persons to this sort of evil acts."

According to Mr Martynov, on March 29, 2010, the case was handed over to the OVD (Interior Division) of Budyonnovsk for making a decision to initiate a criminal case.

The Budyonnovsk District OVD refused to make any comments on the situation, having recommended addressing the head of the district militia of public safety. However, he was inaccessible.

According to the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation, recently there were no threats addressed to Budyonnovsk Jehovah's Witnesses. However, the warship building was the object of vandalism - for example, some time ago malefactors got into the yard and drew a David's star on the wall of the building.

Since December 2009, over 150 detentions of Jehovah's Witnesses were registered

According to Jehovah's Witnesses, manifestations of intolerance to adherents of this faith became more frequent after the decision of the Rostov Regional Court to recognize some publications of Jehovah's Witnesses to be "extremist materials".

Trials were initiated by the Prosecutor's Office of the Rostov Region, which has stated that local Jehovah's Witnesses "impose their religious beliefs in public places, propagandize the exclusiveness and superiority of their dogmas over all others," as well as "call to reject one's civil duties, not to vote at elections and ignore regular army service."

Also, on January 27, 2010, the Supreme Court of the Altai Territory recognized 18 publications of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist. On April 12, in Gorno-Altaisk, Jehovah's Witnesses lodged supervising complaints against the decisions of the Supreme Court. The second and third complaints were lodged in the interests of legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in the USA and Germany, which are, accordingly, the author and the publisher of the literature, including the Bibles, used by Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, including in Russia.

In March, these 18 publications were entered into the Federal List of Extremist Materials, which, as a matter of fact, means a prohibition to store and disseminate them all over Russia. The court of the first instance rejected the believers' petition to conduct a research at a specialized expert establishment, which could more competently establish whether the materials in question were really extremist.

"Because of all these events, since December 2009 over 150 detentions of Jehovah's Witnesses, disruptions of their warship meetings, searches of their private houses and warship buildings and confiscations of literature were registered, as well as attacks and aggression acts against Jehovah's Witnesses across Russia," said Mr Martynov.

Court decisions in favour of Jehovah's Witnesses

On April 15, 2010, the judicial board on criminal cases of the Tambov Regional Court satisfied the cassation complaint lodged by the Cheprunov family - Jehovah's Witnesses.

Early in the morning on March 17, 2010, militiamen came to the Cheprunovs' house to make a search and confiscated personal things and literature. The search was conducted on the basis of the decision of the judge, who had illegally decided that their faith was "a sufficient ground" for such actions. Mikhail and Larissa Cheprunov appealed against the decision by indicating that any criminal prosecution of citizens for their attitude to religion is forbidden (Article 19 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation) and demanded to get all the confiscated things back.

Lawyer Sergey Palagin, who represented the interests of the Cheprunov family, said after the court session: "This court decision is essentially important not only for this family but for other believers of this confession too. I think that now they will stop searches only because someone is a Jehovah's Witness. At least, the Tambov Regional Court has condemned such actions as illegal and violating believers' rights."

On March 15, 2010, in the city of Meleuz (Bashkortostan), a magistrate judge found guilty citizen V. Anikin who had inflicted bodily injuries to believers R. Avanesova, 58, and P. Pritulenko, 24. The malefactor beat the believers only for their sharing the Bible message with the tenants of his apartment block. The judge punished him with 140 hours of public works and fines of 2000 roubles in favour of Avanesova and 1500 roubles in favour of Pritulenko.

Last year, militiamen also disrupted Witnesses' services in the cities of Asbest and Kamyshlov. These incidents are pending judicial consideration. It is known that in 2007 the ECtHR condemned the actions of the officials, who interfered and prevented a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses in the neighbouring Chelyabinsk, and appointed 30,000 euros of compensation of moral damage in favour of the believers.