For the first time in history, the prosecutor's office is seeking to ban the Bible itself through the courts!

The Leningrad-Finland Transport Prosecutor filed a lawsuit to recognize the canonical Bible, seized at customs from Jehovah's Witnesses, as "extremist material." This seems implausible against the background of the fact that in the fall of the year the Russian president put forward and signed a law protecting the Holy Scriptures, including the Bible, from the action of anti-extremist legislation. Nevertheless, the prosecutor's claim is a fait accompli: the first hearing in the case is scheduled for March 15, 2016 in the Vyborg City Court (Leningrad Region).

The decision in this case may affect many people, since the Bible is a respected and widespread book in Russia. At least 59 Russian translations of the whole Bible or sections thereof, which have been published at various times since 1819, are in the possession of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.