I. MOSCOW JUSTICE DIRECTORATE SUPPORTS PROSECUTION IN JEHOVAH�S WITNESS TRIAL II. LUTHERANS WIN LATEST ROUND IN KHAKASSIA Tuesday 2 March MOSCOW JUSTICE DIRECTORATE SUPPORTS PROSECUTION IN JEHOVAH�S WITNESS TRIAL by Tatyana Titova, Keston News Service The Moscow directorate of justice, part of the administration of Moscow mayor YURI LUZHKOV, has come out clearly on the side of the prosecution in a controversial religious-freedom case against the Jehovah�s Witnesses. A representative of the justice directorate, YELENA FILLIPCHUK, asked the court on 1 March to liquidate the Moscow branch of the Jehovah�s Witnesses. The justice directorate supported three of the five grounds presented by the prosecution: infringement of the person, rights and freedoms of a citizen; the destruction of families; and the refusal of Jehovah�s Witnesses to serve in the army. Previously on 23 February, when the trial was already well underway, a layers for the anti-cult Committee for the Salvation of Youth, IRINA SERGIYENKO, was given a document authorising her to represent the directorate of justice for the city of Moscow. Thus the directorate of justice broke its neutral position after seemingly trying to avoid taking a public position in the case. When the judge YELENA PROKHORYCHEVA asked to have an explanation in writing for this infringement of court procedure, Yelena Fillipchuk, a genuine employee of the justice administration, was sent to the court in her place. The 16 February session of the court trial was preceded by a demonstration by a group of unknown Orthodox believers carrying icons, including men in secular clothes who described themselves as priests. They had come to support the procuracy's efforts against the Jehovah's Witness community. When asked whom they represented, the demonstrators replied simply `the Orthodox Church'. Asked which parish or committee of the Orthodox Church, they said that they were from various parishes. During the court session, three men in military uniform tried to force their way into the courtroom, saying that they had come to maintain order. As the courtroom was already overcrowded, the judge did not allow them in. The coordinator of the Administrative Centre of the Jehovah's Witnesses of Russia, VASILI KALIN, the head of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the country, told Keston News Service that he had approached the three and asked them which branch of the armed forces they represented. `We represent the Orthodox Army,' they replied, adding: `When we come to power we will build an Orthodox Russia.' Keston spoke with some of the demonstrators. Asked why the Orthodox did not like the Jehovah's Witnesses, a young man responded: `It's disgusting - they go in pairs from apartment to apartment with the Bible, like wolves in sheep's clothing.' Asked if he believed it was right to resolve such problems in a civil court, he agreed that `it is not the business of a civil court, rather it should be on the representation of individual citizens who have concrete complaints that criminal cases should be inaugurated.' Asked whether Orthodoxy should not fight with other methods, the young man countered: `The Orthodox Church is not participating in the trial, it is the state and the procuracy which are concerned about citizens.' (The procuracy's current case is based mostly not on actual complaints of specific acts of law-breaking, but on evaluations of the religious doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses by such specialists as ALEKSANDR DVORKIN, FYODOR KONDRATYEV and Father OLEG STENYAYEV.) On 16 February the Jehovah's Witnesses' lawyers GALINA KRYLOVA and ARTUR LEONTYEV responded to the procuracy's charges. Krylova described the application to liquidate the Moscow congregation as `aggressive rudeness', pointing out yet again that the procurator could not cite any specific instances of violations by the congregation of any Russian law. This speech clearly made an impression: on the following Monday, 22 February, representative of the procuracy TATYANA KONDRATYEVA announced in court that the procuracy would be filing a criminal case against Krylova on the grounds that she had 'insulted' the procurator. (Such cases are usually brought against lawyers only for offences such as bribery.) Lawyers for the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the procuracy is artificially dragging out the trial. On 17 February the procuracy representative did not arrive at all at court and only an hour after the session should have started did a fax arrive from the procuracy asking that, in view of the fact that all the procurator's aides were busy, the court be adjourned until 22 February. In addition, the procuracy's representative has continually asked time-consuming questions such as `What contribution have the Jehovah's Witnesses made to world culture?', `Do you consider that public opinion in Russia is hostile to them?' and `If you do not consider Christ to be God, why do you trust so much in his words in the Gospel?' Judge PROKHORYCHEVA declared: `I was obliged to inform the procuracy that the trial was being disrupted. Out of nine days, we have worked only six - and that is the fault of the procuracy's representative.' The delays in the case have already had a negative impact on the Jehovah's Witnesses. The lawyer Leontyev told Keston that `on the basis of the fact that a court case is continuing against us, we have been refused a hall to rent for meetings in Moscow, while the question of acquiring a plot of land to build a headquarters has been left hanging in mid-air'. Kalin, the head of the Jehovah�s Witnesses in Russia, declared: `We have 900 congregations in all, but registration under the new law has been achieved for only 26. We are being fobbed off with official replies saying that as the court case is still going on in Moscow, registration will not go through for the time being.' He said that re-registration of his confession's Administrative Centre, mandatory under the new religion law, has also been postponed. (END) Tuesday 2 March LUTHERANS WIN LATEST ROUND IN KHAKASSIA by Roman Lunkin, Keston News Service The chief official for church-state relations in Khakassia, in south- western Siberia, accused Keston News Service of 'stirring up fuss in the wild and corrupt west' over the provincial authorities' campaign against a Lutheran mission in Tuim. The Lutherans won the long campaign's latest battle in February when a provincial court declined to annul their mission's registration. NIKOLAI VOLKOV, adviser to the province's governor for relations with religious organisations, told Keston in a telephone interview that the rights of the Lutherans were not being threatened because if they lost their registration they could still apply for re-registration under Russia's new 1997 law on religion. According to the mission's pastor PAVEL ZAYAKIN, Volkov personally told him in late 1997 that he was determined to close the mission. Volkov told Keston that he wanted to 'leave the mission in peace', contrary to the 'howling in the gutter human-rights press'. But he continued to insist that the mission had violated the rules for registration under the 1990 law on religion which has now been replaced by the 1997 law. If his view were to prevail, the mission would become subject to the 1997 law's controversial 'fifteen-year rule' and would thus lose the rights to engage in educational and publishing activities. The Lutherans' lawyer, VLADIMIR RYAKHOVSKY, told Keston that the court had vindicated the mission on all the charges against them. The court rejected the local procuracy's argument that the registration should be cancelled because seven of the mission's ten original founders had failed to confirm their adherence to Lutheranism when interrogated by local police and the FSB (the re- named KGB). Ryakhovsky maintained that these interrogations exceeded the authority of the law-enforcement agencies and thus violated the principle of the neutrality of the state towards religion, and he criticised the court for not formally declaring the interrogations to be illegal. The second charge against the Lutherans was that the mission's founding meeting had not been conducted correctly, since only five of the ten founders had been physically present to approve its charter; the other five had later been surveyed individually. But the court accepted Ryakhovsky's view that an actual meeting was not required, only the express consent of ten believers to the charter. The final point on the charge-sheet consisted of the technical inconsistencies in the statute of the Lutheran mission, which were deemed to be insignificant. Ryakhovsky confirmed to Keston that Volkov had not taken part in the trial, being present in the court room only as a spectator. Volkov himself said that he personally opposed the trial, preferring other methods. Deacon Pavel Zayakin, the head of the mission, told Keston that the court decision nevertheless did not guarantee a quiet life. He remains concerned by the decision of the court of appeals in Abakan, the Khakassian capital. The appeals court last November upheld the decision of a district court that the registration of the Lutheran mission was illegal, but then in December ruled to exclude from the lower court's decision the wording that the mission enjoyed all rights in conducting its religious activity. Zayakin fears that this proviso might in future be used to obstruct the mission, but he declares that nevertheless the Lutherans will invite foreigners to visit, publish the congregation's newspaper "New Tuim" and give religious lessons to children. Zayakin said that the Lutherans were now trying not only to re- register the Tuim mission, but to register a religious organisation comprising four other local bodies which have considered themselves Lutheran for 15 years or more. (END)