Jehovah's Witnesses News

Ben Courtice

The small African nation of Eritrea had the United Nations Security Council impose sanctions against it in December 2009 for allegedly funding and arming the al-Shabaab islamic militia group in neighbouring Somalia.

Eritrean government supporters abroad rallied to protest against the sanctions, with co-ordinated rallies in Australia, Switzerland and the US.

However, not all Eritreans abroad support their government. Many are refugees from what they describe as a regime of arbitrary arrest, disappearances and inhuman treatment of political prisoners. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16%

For Immediate Release
March 26, 2010

GOMEL, Belarus—There is now a renewed opportunity for Belarus to implement alternative civilian service as provided for in the nation’s Constitution. The verdict against conscientious objector Dmitry Smyk was overturned on March 15, 2010, and the case was remanded for retrial. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 14%

By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service , and Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Despite many enquiries, Forum 18 News Service has been unable to establish which Russian government agency or individual initiated the campaign against the Jehovah’s Witnesses and readers of the works of the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi, and why. An Interior Ministry official – who did not give his name – told Forum 18 that “the police don’t decide these things for themselves. Someone else has to give the order, perhaps a prosecutor. The police just carry out the order.” The official insisted that the moves against Jehovah’s Witnesses are “centralised”, but declined to speculate on which agency or agencies were involved. The official ended the call before Forum 18 could ask about the campaign against Nursi readers. Contrary to this, Aleksandr Kudryavtsev of the presidential Council for Co-operation with Religious Organisations rejected any suggestion of a “centralised” campaign. Jehovah’s Witnesses have documented increasing numbers of short-term police detentions of their members. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 21%

For Immediate Release
March 24, 2010

TAMBOV, Russia—“When the police showed up at our house early in the morning, it struck me that I have reason to fear for my freedom and the welfare of my children.” Larisa Cheprunova, whose home was searched, was shocked by what happened. “We have always respected the authorities, but the officers treated us like criminals; they spoke rudely, took our belongings and literature, and scared our children!”

At approximately 7 a.m. on March 17, 2010, three groups of policemen arrived simultaneously at three homes occupied by four families of Jehovah’s Witnesses living in the city of Tambov. The residents were awakened by the police who, with court orders in hand, were there to search the homes. The officers confiscated personal libraries, taking all Bible literature as well as business documents, computers, electronic data, even family photo albums and personal correspondence. These events took place shortly after another update of the Federal List of Extremist Materials to which new publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses had been added. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 24%

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service , and Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service

After initially denying it, Officer Senichev (who refused to give his first name) of the 1st department of Kaluga Police in central Russia admitted to Forum 18 News Service that eleven armed officers with dogs had interrupted the 28 February Sunday morning service of St George’s Lutheran congregation. “We had a call on the hotline that extremist literature was there. We’re obliged by law to investigate all such calls.” He was unable to specify which Russian law requires the police to respond to anonymous calls. Senichev was also unable to say why, if extremist literature was believed to be present, police officers conducting a search needed to be armed and accompanied by dogs. Nor was he able to explain why the search was conducted during the church’s Sunday worship service. Meanwhile, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 that an administrative fine on two members in Krasnodar Region was accompanied by the first official order in post-Soviet Russia to destroy their confiscated literature. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11%

By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service , and Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Russia has raided three flats of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Tambov in the first such reported home raids against them since the Soviet era, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The raids follow previous raids on the homes of Muslims who read the works of theologian Said Nursi. The police protocol of one search gives its aim as confiscation of “items of literature and electronic devices propagandising religious hatred, as well as other documentation recording activity by the religious group ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’”. Search warrants referred to the opening of a case under Criminal Code Article 282 (“incitement of ethnic, racial or religious hatred”). Forum 18 was unable to find out why the house searches were ordered, nor why copies of the search warrants were not given to the victims. Tambov Regional Police claimed that “these were not raids but searches”. Distribution, preparation or storage with the aim of distribution of Jehovah’s Witness literature on the Federal List of Extremist Materials could result in a five-year prison term. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 18%

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Police in Azerbaijan have detained two Jehovah’s Witnesses and fined them each the equivalent of about three weeks’ average wages, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The two – who also had their personal Bibles and other literature confiscated – were fined under the Administrative Code article banning “distributing religious literature without state permission”. They were detained by police in the capital Baku after talking to neighbours about their beliefs, and were put on trial the same day. The assistant to the judge who tried the case insisted to Forum 18 that the verdicts had been “in accordance with the law”. Meanwhile, Baku’s Baptist congregation is deeply concerned about a political opposition newspaper article making unfounded allegations against them, including that they are spies for foreign countries. The article led directly to police officers visiting the church several times to check its documents and question the pastor. The newspaper’s editor, Rauf Arifoglu, vigorously defended the article to Forum 18. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service , and
Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

Around 40 associates of a group of readers of the works of Muslim theologian Said Nursi in Uzbekistan were arrested by police in January, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. “These were not necessarily participants in reading Nursi’s works, but were witnesses in the earlier case, neighbours and friends,” one source stated. Among other recent arrests are those of 25 alleged Nursi readers serving in the army, with 12 due to face a military tribunal, a human rights defender told Forum 18. However, a Jehovah’s Witness convicted but not imprisoned for teaching religion illegally was amnestied. No Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness or Christian prisoner of conscience is known to have been amnestied. Also, Uzbekistan has categorically denied to the UN that prisoners are punished for praying. The denial came after three UN Special Rapporteurs wrote about reports of two brothers being tortured. One, Nigmat Zufarov, began a hunger strike demanding to be allowed to pray. The government claimed that he then “committed suicide”. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11%

For Immediate Release
March 10, 2010

BAKU, Azerbaijan—On March 3, 2010, Famil Nasirov and Amina Mammadova, Jehovah’s Witnesses sharing comforting thoughts from the Holy Scriptures with their neighbors, were stopped by three police officers and taken to the police station. The police confiscated their personal copies of the Holy Scriptures and other religious books, as well as several magazines they intended to share with persons interested in learning more about the Bible. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16%

Some 150,000 volunteers hand out about 12 million leaflets slamming the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses, guilty of rejecting to military service and unfriendliness towards other religious groups. For their part, the Witnesses say that history is repeating itself with a return to Soviet-style persecution.

Moscow (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Between late February and early March, Russian police arrested at least 50 Jehovah’s Witnesses for handing out leaflets that describe how their religious freedom is curtailed. They are especially critical of the way their communities are being persecuted, labelled extremist and criminal for refusing the military draft. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16%