SAN FRANCISCO, April 14, (THEWILL) – The Russian Supreme Court has said it would continue the hearing of the case to ban the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, at 10:00am.
Attorneys for Jehovah’s Witnesses had argued in defense of the Administrative Center, followed by a cross-examination from attorneys representing the Ministry of Justice at the last hearing.
The judge requested the Ministry of Justice to identify the specific legal basis for liquidating Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Administrative Center as the day’s proceedings concluded after hearing testimony from witnesses for both parties.
The court is expected to begin their review of the case materials when the case resumes.
Russia’s Ministry of Justice (Ministry) has filed a claim with the Supreme Court, seeking “to declare the religious organization, the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses, extremist, ban its activity, and liquidate it.”
On March 15, 2017, the Supreme Court posted notice on its official website that it had received the claim from the Ministry. The Administrative Center later received notice that the Supreme Court will consider the liquidation claim and has scheduled a hearing for 10:00 a.m. on April 5, 2017.
A decision by the Supreme Court in favor of the claim brought by the Ministry would have dire consequences for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. The Witnesses could lose properties dedicated to religious worship, almost 400 legal entities could be dissolved, and each of the over 170,000 Witnesses could be criminally prosecuted merely for meeting for worship, reading the Bible together, or talking to others about their faith.
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