Source: http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=english&id=632
Timestamp: 2018-05-21 13:07:37
Document Index: 268589053

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 3', 'art 4', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 4']

"FORUM18": Russia: alleged "missionary activity" prosecutions continue
More than seven months after the July 2016 restrictions were introduced, confusion still surrounds their implementation. This confusion and inconsistency marking decisions on whether to prosecute individuals and religious organisations for sharing beliefs has been present from the day the restrictions came into force (see eg. F18News 20 December 2016). The current persisting confusion is primarily to do with whether and how people may share their private beliefs as private individuals, rather than as representatives of
registered religious associations.
Nizhny Tagil Evangelical Christian Church is appealing against its conviction under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 3 ("Implementation of activities by a religious organisation without indicating its official full name, including the issuing or distribution, within the framework of missionary activity, of literature and printed, audio, and video material without a label bearing this name, or with an incomplete or deliberately
false label"), and Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity"). It is particularly concerned about an order that confiscated Bibles (including an edition used by the Moscow Patriarchate Russuian Orthodox Church) be destroyed (see below).
July 2016 - March 2017 proscecutions
There were: 11 prosecutions (nine of organisations, two of community leaders) under Part 3 ("Implementation of activities by a religious organisation without indicating its official full name, including the issuing or distribution, within the framework of missionary activity, of literature and printed, audio, and video material without a label bearing
this name, or with an incomplete or deliberately false label"); 35 prosecutions (three of organisations, 32 of individuals) under Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity"); and seven prosecutions of individuals under Part 5 ("Foreigners conducting missionary activity").
Prosecutions have involved individuals or communities belonging to the following religious communities: independent Protestants - 18; Jehovah's Witnesses - 13; the Society of Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna devotees) - 7; Baptists - 5; Seventh-Day Adventists - 4; Buddhists - 2; New Apostolic Church - 1; Ukrainian Reformed Orthodox Church - 1; and Salvation Army - 1. One village elder who permitted an independent Protestant church to display a banner at a village festival in the Mari-El Republic was also charged.
Defendants have submitted appeals in 19 cases, five of which have not yet been heard. Of the rest, all were unsuccessful except one, which was sent back for re-examination but was dropped as the statute of limitations had expired. Police and prosecutors have also attempted to challenge four court rulings - two of these appeals have not yet been heard, one was unsuccessful and the acquittal was upheld, and one aimed to change (rather than overturn) the verdict (see Salvation Army case below).
On 6 July 2016 President Vladimir Putin signed amendments to the Religion Law imposing harsh restrictions on the sharing of beliefs, including on where and by whom they may be shared. There were widespread Russian protests against the changes, which ban among other things extremely broadly and imprecisely defined so-called "missionary activity" by anyone without written permission from an officially recognised religious organisation, and by religious organisations using material without their full legal name. The changes also ban anyone who is a former member of allegedly "extremist" religious organisations carrying out so-called "missionary activity", and allow very wide scope for arbitrary official actions. The allegedly "anti-terrorism" changes broaden the range of possibilities to prosecute people who publicly share their beliefs with additions to Administrative Code Article 5.26 ("Conducting missionary activity") (see Forum 18's general Russia religious freedom survey).
There was an initial lack of consensus among judges over whether the absence of written authorisation from a registered religious organisation is itself evidence of an offence or proof of innocence (see Forum 18's general Russia religious freedom survey). But it now appears that judges are increasingly seeing grounds for conviction as being if
there is a lack of formal written authorisation, or in the case of religious groups failure to notify the Justice Ministry of its existence, activities, places of meetings, and names of people who attend.
A 2015 amendment to the Religion Law for the first time and against international human rights law required all unregistered religious groups to notify the authorities of their existence and activities. This includes providing names and addresses of all their members, and addresses where any meeting takes place. A draft law making failure to do this a specific offence subject to fines has been accepted for a first reading in the State Duma, although no date has yet been announced for this (see Forum 18's
general Russia religious freedom survey).
Prosecutors accused Mani of advertising meetings for worship in his church's group on the VKontakte social network, which was openly accessible to all users, and engaging in "missionary activity" at these events without the necessary written authorisation from his religious organisation. (It's Vkontakte group has since become a closed group, Forum 18 notes.) As the Church does not have its own building, it rents space to meet for worship
at the "Fort Dialogue" business centre in Naberezhny Chelny. Court verdicts, seen by Forum 18, note that these premises were freely accessible to non-members of the Church. The charges against Mani centred on the presence at a service on 4 December 2016 of non-members who testified that they had learned of the event from the VKontakte page. One of them later complained to law enforcement that Mani had given him printed information about the Church, and encouraged him to bring his friends to the next service. Mani told Forum 18 on 22 February 2017 that the man, of his own accord, "bought books and stole our flyers". Mani also denied having told the man to invite anyone to the meetings.
Nizhny Tagil Evangelical Christian Church in the Sverdlovsk Region was convicted twice on 8 February 2017. It was fined 30,000 Roubles under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 3 ("Implementation of activities by a religious organisation without indicating its official full name, including the issuing or distribution, within the framework of missionary activity, of literature and printed, audio, and video material without a label bearing this name, or with an incomplete or deliberately false label"), and also fined 50,000 Roubles under Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity"). Judge Oksana Savina of Prigorodny District Magistrate's Court No. 2 also ordered confiscated Bibles and other
literature to be destroyed.
Prosecutors accused Church members of distributing religious books and CDs among the clients of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre while the Church members carryied incomplete and invalid written authorisation. Their materials also allegedly lacked labels showing the Church's full official name. The Church had a written agreement dated 1 January 2017 with the rehabilitation centre to carry out this activity on its property, but
prosecutors claimed that Church members had been handing out literature before this date.
Among the items ordered to be destroyed are various editions of the Bible published by the Gideons, the Russian Bible Society, and Bible League International. The editions ordered destroyed include the 19th century Russian Synodal translation also used by the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the court verdict, seen by Forum 18, the destruction would be the responsibility of bailiffs. The means of destruction is not specified, but it is likely it would take the form of burning. This happened in the 2014 case of so-called "extremist" literature confiscated from Muslims who read the works of theologian Said Nursi, who were prosecuted in Naberezhnyye Chelny in Tatarstan (see F18News 28 August 2014).
On 10 January 2017 at Tver's Proletarian District Magistrate's Court No. 5, Hare Krishna devotee Andrei Puchkov was found guilty under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity"), and fined 5,000 Roubles for organising a concert of Vedic music and chanting at an entertainment centre. Prosecutors based their charges against him on an "expert report" produced three days before the concert actually took place and which was based solely on social media posts. He has been taken to court three times in relation to Hare Krishna events he has organised, after law enforcement investigations decided that "all Krishnaite events", regardless of what they are, are to be considered to be "missionary acts" (see F18News 20 December 2016).
Independent Baptist preacher Donald Ossewaarde was fined 40,000 Roubles in August 2016 for holding meetings for worship in his home in Oryol, and allegedly advertising them on the notice boards of nearby blocks of flats (see F18News 26 August 2016). His multiple subsequent appeals have failed to have the ruling overturned.
"FORUM18", March 1, 2017
DOCUMENT: "Especially the Ukrainian Orthodox Nation...". Communique of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumanical Patriarchate, April 22