Jehovah's Witnesses complain to ECtHR of Russian authorities' actions

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) filed two complaints from the residents of the Rostov Region, practicing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Russian citizens intend to lodge a protest to the ECtHR on the searches, which were sanctioned by the authorities in respect of them, confiscations and destruction of religious literature, bans on preaching and disruption of religious services.

The complaint "Alexei Fedorin and others versus the Russian Federation" was lodged on behalf of 10 claimants whose rights were violated by the searches conducted by authorities, confiscation and destruction of religious literature. Nine other claimants, who live in Yoshkar-Ola, Tver, Belgorod, Kamchatka and Primorsk Regions, Samara and Smolensk Regions, the Republic of Udmurtia, faced the same treatment from the authorities, as the pensioner from the Rostov Region, the press service of the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia informs.

The second complaint, "Alexander Nabokov and others versus the Russian Federation", was lodges by five other claimants in regard to the actions of the authorities aimed at disrupting religious services. Four other claimants from the Vladimir and Rostov Regions, the Stavropol territory, and the Republic of Bashkortostan have informed about similar violations of their rights to freedom of religion.

Both complaints were lodged on May 20, 2011.