Shakhty: founder of local Jehovah's Witnesses community fined on accusation of distributing extremist literature

In the city of Shakhty of Rostov Region a founder of a local religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses was fined.

The correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" was told by the press service of the Regional Prosecutor's Office, he distributed the books "My Book of Bible Stories" included in the federal list of extremist publications posted on the official website of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

After the infliction of penalty the defendant did not agree with the decision and interposed an appeal, but the decision of the Shakhty City Court found the arguments of the Prosecutor's Office to be justified, and the defendant's complaint was dismissed.

According to Grigory Martynov, the press secretary of the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, after the courts' decision in 2009 on the introduction of a number of publications to the extremist materials list it was sent to the local Jehovah's Witnesses organizations. The import of the publications into the country was also stopped. "At present, the local organizations do not distribute these publications," said Grigory Martynov.

Regarding the Shakhty case Grigory Martynov said, referring to the words of the Shakhty affiliation's founder, that "it was a complete fabrication of his actions because these magazines and books were foisted on him at the police office," the Russian Agency for Legal and Judicial Information (RAPSI) reports.

Let us note that on 5 July at the meeting of the members of the Council on Civil Society and Human Rights with Dmitry Medvedev in Nalchik the violations of human rights of members of the religious organization "Jehovah's Witnesses" were mentioned.

Valentin Gefter, the director of the Institute of Human Rights, noted in its report that now human rights activists are mostly concerned about so-called "illegal anti-extremism", which often and often leads to the unnecessary restriction and sometimes to direct violation of the rights of citizens and citizens' associations".