By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service Russian state censorship increasingly extended nationwide in November to cover Jehovah’s Witness websites – and possibly also Hare Krishna sms announcements, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. A Prosecutor’s Office official claimed to Forum 18 that blocking the websites “isn’t about freedom of conscience or censorship – it’s [...]
MOSCOW — Over the last week, a well-known writer and a Jehovah’s Witness in Siberia have become two more Russians to fall foul of a murky and much-criticized law purported to fight terrorism but being turned against a broad and seemingly random array of people. Grigory Chkhartishvili, better known as Boris Akunin, the writer of [...]
For Immediate Release November 1, 2011 ASTANA, Kazakhstan—Despite serious concern expressed by the international community, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed the proposed Religion Law entitled “The Law On Religious Activity and Religious Associations.” The law came into effect after October 25, 2011.
For Immediate Release September 16, 2011 BANGALORE, India—In the midst of a growing menace to law-abiding Christians in India, incidents of mob attacks continue to occur against Jehovah’s Witnesses in India’s southern state of Karnataka. The most recent assault took place on August 28, 2011, when a family of five were cruelly beaten in a [...]
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service Rashid Abdulov, a Muslim who reads the works of theologian Said Nursi, told Forum 18 News Service he was pleased to have been freed on 7 September after nearly eight months’ detention. But he rejects the extremism-related charges on which he was convicted and handed a one-year sentence [...]
by Nina Achmatova After accusations, trials and physical attacks, street protests now target the JW. Slogans and banners stigmatize the community as an extremist sect. Moscow (AsiaNews) – After house raids, court trials for extremism and physical aggression now the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) in Russia are also the target of street protests. Last July 23, [...]
The Bulgarian far-right VMRO formation has cried foul over the charges pressed again regional leader in the Black Sea city of Burgas, who has allegedly organized a violent attack against members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The nationalists’ regional leader in Burgas, Georgi Drakaliev, faces up to five years behind bars if the accusation that he [...]
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service Armenia’s religious minorities face barriers to their exercising freedom of religion or belief from senior officials, politicians, media outlets and priests of the dominant Armenian Apostolic Church, several communities have told Forum 18 News Service. Owners of two separate venues, forced to cancel contracts with Jehovah’s Witnesses in [...]
The event should take place this weekend, but the organization ‘Council of the People’ asks the attorney general to verify its legality: “The JWs are a dangerous cult and violate the law.” Moscow (AsiaNews) – The Orthodox activists of the nationalist movement ‘Council of the People’ are trying to prevent a large national convention of [...]
For Immediate Release June 22, 2011 ST. PETERSBURG, Russia―Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia have filed two more applications with the European Court of Human Rights. The first, Aleksey Fedorin and Others v. Russia, was submitted by ten Witness applicants whose rights were violated when the authorities conducted searches and confiscated and destroyed their religious literature. The [...]