Picket against Jehovah's Witnesses held in Rostov

In Rostov-on-Don the NGO "Rostov Without Drugs" held a picket against religious activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses. According to Stanislav Goryainov, the head of the NGO, by means of this picket, protesters tried to draw public attention to that religious confession.

"A recent case, when a child got into a road accident, caused our picket with posters to the streets. The injured child needed an urgent blood transfusion, but his mother forbade the doctors to do it, since the religion of the Jehovah's Witnesses forbids transfusions. The doctors still made blood transfusion at their own risk, but now the child's mother lodged a complaint against the hospital to a court. This incident caused us to go out and protest," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Stanislav Goryainov, who had not specified the details of the incident.

The lawyer Nikita Abramov, the representative of the Rostov Jehovah's Witnesses said that believers would not respond to such actions.

"We are not against such actions. To assemble on any matters, including religious ones, peacefully and without arms, is allowed by the Constitution.

However, we do not expend our energy for such political actions. Our task is to profess the faith, to communicate with those who want it. But we do not participate in any debates. This is our principled position," Nikita Abramov has added.

The members of this religious organization advocate for property disputes; figure in criminal cases, but only in that cases when that occurs in the frameworks of the judicial trials.

Grigory Martynov, Press Secretary of the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, has stressed that the believers belonging to this religious confession "love life and their children".

"We do not oppose the medicine or medical treatment, but, on the contrary, we appreciate, when doctors use advanced methods of medical treatment, taking into account our belief. Such medical treatment includes also proven bloodless methods of treatment. The only thing that Jehovah's Witnesses avoid is the use of blood. This position is based on the Bible and conforms to the Russian law, which allows the patient to choose a method of medical treatment," Grigory Martynov has noted.