Source: http://spirithismouth.blogspot.com/2017/08/russia-one-year-of-anti-missionary.html
Timestamp: 2018-07-20 02:39:29
Document Index: 78758441

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

with the spirit of His mouth: RUSSIA: One year of "anti-missionary" punishments [article]
In the first year of "anti-missionary" punishments, Forum 18 found 181 cases under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Parts 3, 4 and 5. Of these 133 resulted in initial convictions (130 fines). In 11 cases religious literature was confiscated. Five foreigners were ordered deported (one overturned on appeal).
Forum 18 found 181 cases brought against 129 individuals and 52 religious communities under the July 2016 "anti-missionary" legal changes between 20 July 2016 and 20 July 2017. Of these, 133 resulted in initial convictions, with 130 fines being imposed. Of the foreigners prosecuted, 5 were ordered deported (though one of these had the deportation order overturned on appeal). More than half the regions in Russia have seen at least one prosecution (see below).
The cases led to 11 religious communities having religious literature confiscated. In three of these cases, judges illegally ordered the religious literature destroyed, although two of these rulings were subsequently overturned (see below).
(For a full listing of known cases - based on court decisions and court records seen by Forum 18 - see forthcoming F18News article.)
Although in some cases it is not possible to ascertain from verdicts how an alleged offence came to be detected, many written decisions indicate that charges were brought after either a systematic inspection by police or prosecutor's office officials, or a tip-off from a member of the public. In several cases, monitoring of internet activities by the FSB or anti-extremism investigators has provided the basis for charges.
In an analysis of available court records, Forum 18 has found a total of 181 prosecutions brought to trial under Article 5.26, Parts 3, 4, and 5 between 20 July 2016 and 20 July 2017. It is unknown how many more individuals and organisations have faced charges, as cases against Russian citizens and legal entities (which comprise the vast majority) are heard in magistrates' courts, of which there are more than 7,000 across the country.
The 181 cases recorded by Forum 18 involved 129 individuals and 52 religious organisations (some of them prosecuted more than once for different incidents). Thirty women and 94 men are known to have been charged, as well as five people whose gender is unknown.
The full effect on "anti-missionary" prosecutions of the Supreme Court's decision to liquidate all Jehovah's Witnesses' organisations and ban their activities (which entered full legal force on 17 July 2017) has yet to be seen (see F18News 18 July 2017 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2297). It could mean a decrease in prosecutions as liquidated communities have ceased to meet and individuals now face criminal charges if found engaging in any Jehovah's Witness activity, but it also opens up the possibility of prosecution under Article 5.26 Parts 4 and 5 specifically for proselytising on behalf of a liquidated extremist organisation.
Between 20 July 2016 and 20 July 2017, there were: 52 prosecutions (42 of communities, 10 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"); 114 prosecutions (10 of organisations, 104 of individuals) under Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity"); and 15 prosecutions under Part 5 ("Foreigners conducting missionary activity").
First instance courts convicted a total of 133 defendants and acquitted only 29. Two cases under Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity") were closed because the statute of limitations had expired, and another two for unknown reasons. Eleven cases were returned by judges to police or prosecutors for the correction of technical errors and were not resubmitted. The outcomes of four prosecutions remain unknown.
Of those convicted, 130 received fines. For Russians, these ranged from 5,000 Roubles, the minimum penalty for individuals under Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity") and the most common punishment up to 40,000 Roubles. Organisations were fined between 30,000 Roubles (the minimum 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") and 100,000 Roubles (the minimum under Part 4).
Defendants have submitted appeals in 92 cases, nine of which have not yet been heard. Of the rest, only 14 were successful, while 55 were unsuccessful and four were rejected without consideration by the court. Three defendants have been sent for retrial – one was acquitted and one reconvicted, while the third case was closed because the statute of limitations had expired. Sentences were reduced in another two cases, although the convictions were upheld. The outcome of five appeals is unknown.
Police and prosecutors also appealed against 12 acquittals, three returns of cases for technical reasons, and the single instance of a judge imposing no sentence because of the "insignificance" of the offence – all of these attempts were unsuccessful. In one case, prosecutors successfully requested on appeal that a destruction order on confiscated Bibles lifted after a widespread outcry from religious figures across Russia.
Prosecutions have involved individuals or organisations belonging to the following religious communities: Protestant churches, including Pentecostals – 56; Jehovah's Witnesses – 40; all Baptists (Baptist Union, Council of Churches, and independent/unknown) – 26; Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna devotees) – 12; Muslims – 9; people associated with the Bible distribution organisation the Gideons – 6 (all in the same case); Jews (Federation of Jewish Communities and a Kabbalah teacher) – 3; Buddhists – 2; Seventh-day Adventists – 3; unknown Christians – 2; New Apostolic Church – 1; Salvation Army – 1; Presbyterian Church – 1; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) – 1; Ukrainian Reformed Orthodox Church – 1; and Russian Orthodox Church Abroad – 1. Two others – a village elder charged in connection with a Protestant case, and the leader of a group interested in ancient Slavic culture, accused of propagating pagan beliefs on social media – were also brought to court. The religious affiliation of 11 individuals is unknown. No individuals or communities associated with the Moscow Patriarchate appear to have been prosecuted.
Forty-eight out of 83 federal subjects of the Russian Federation saw at least one prosecution (not counting Crimea and Sevastopol). The highest figures were found in Sverdlovsk Region (13 prosecutions), Zabaikalsk Region (12), the Republic of Bashkortostan (12), Nizhny Novgorod Region (8), Krasnoyarsk Region (8), Chelyabinsk Region (7), Oryol Region (7), Tver Region (6), Kaliningrad Region (6), and the Republic of Mordovia (6). Multiple prosecutions often arise from a single incident (for example, a group of Baptists or Jehovah's Witnesses offering literature in the same place on the same day) or a single law enforcement investigation.
On 26 May, for instance, taxi driver D.Kh. Sharafeyev (charged under Article 5.26 Part 4 "Russians conducting missionary activity") was acquitted of carrying out "missionary activity" without authorisation from a religious organisation or group. He admitted to Nizhnekamsk Magistrate's Court No. 8 that he had given a Tatar-language leaflet from the New Life Evangelical Church to one of his passengers, but argued that he had done this on his own behalf and not as a representative of the church. His lawyer Konstantin Andreyev pointed out that Sharafeyev had not invited the man to any services and that the leaflet contained only "general Christian content", not specific to any particular organisation.
http://spirithismouth.blogspot.it/2017/07/yarovaya-lawis-cherry-picking-bring.html
Posted by avles at 11:06 PM