[{"body":"\"Must be destroyed\" is the decision made by Judge Nataliya Shibanova regarding a copy of the Bible, which is part of the material evidence in the case of the believers. Other materials (for example, video recordings) will continue to be stored in the case materials.\nProsecutor Yevgeniy Leshundak participates in the hearing of the Birobidzhan District Court, at which \"the fate of one book [...] in a dark binding with the inscription \"New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures\" is being decided\".\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Krushevskiy and Artamonov in Birobidzhan","date":"2025-10-31T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/birobidzhan21/index.html#20251031","regions":["jewish"],"tags":["bible-ban"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"Expert religious scholar Mikhail Seleznev, Doctor of Philology and Bible scholar, gives a statement. He is interrogated via video conferencing. He says that he was surprised by the expert study, based on which the translation of the Bible made by Jehovah's Witnesses was recognized as extremist in 2017. Seleznev disagrees with the conclusion that the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures is not the Bible. He was one of 27 specialists who wrote a review of this expert study. Among other things, the review states that the authors of the expert study are not Bible scholars.\nThe scholar also compares passages from several editions of the Holy Scriptures and states: \"The translation of Jehovah's Witnesses is consistent with a number of other Russian translations of the Bible and can rightly be called the Bible exactly as the Synodal translation or the translation of the Bible of the Russian Bible Society.\"\n","caseTitle":"Case in Kingisepp","date":"2025-10-15T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/kingisepp/index.html#20251015","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"tags":["first-instance","interrogation","bible-ban"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On March 31, 2021, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg declared as “extremist” and banned the distribution in Russia of the religious mobile application JW Library, a library which contains biblical texts, audio and video materials. The court made this decision without even examining the application.\nIn October 2020, the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office demanded that the application be banned, citing the fact that earlier Russian courts had unjustifiably added some publications of Jehovah's Witnesses to the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Prior to this, the overwhelming majority of state expert institutions, including the Federal Center for Forensic Expertise under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, consistently and unequivocally concluded that there were no signs of extremism in such publications. The literature of Jehovah's Witnesses is freely and legally distributed in approximately 240 countries and territories.\nAs follows from the reports of human rights defenders and international structures, the ban on literature in Russia became possible largely due to the half-baked anti-extremist legislation, as well as the bias of individual experts and judges, which became the basis for an arbitrary interpretation of the concept of extremism. Back in 2015, the UN Human Rights Committee recommended that the Russian state “revise the Federal Law 'On Countering Extremist Activities' in order to ... establish clear and specific criteria by which certain materials can be classified as extremist. All necessary measures should be taken to prevent the arbitrary application of this law and the Federal List of Extremist Materials should be revised.\"\nAn amendment was made to the law on extremism, according to which “the Bible, Koran, Tanakh and Gandzhur, their content and quotations from them cannot be recognized as extremist materials” (Article 3.1). In spite of this, the court banned the Bible published by Jehovah's Witnesses - “Holy Scripture. New World Translation ”. The liquidation of legal organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, the subsequent beatings, arrests and sentences are the result of the ban on literature.\nAccording to a lawyer familiar with the circumstances of the case, the decision to ban JW Library was made with gross violations of the law: “The application was not even examined in court. This in itself is nonsense when deciding whether to recognize information material as extremist. In addition, the court, without any substantiation, rejected numerous requests to obtain evidence and send requests to state bodies. \"\nThe decision is subject to immediate execution, but an appeal will be made.\nThe JW Library app was developed by Jehovah's Witnesses in 2013. The program includes content in 98 languages and supports Android and iOS. Only the Android version of the application was downloaded by over 10 million users, who collectively rated it 4.8 points out of 5.\nJW Library allows to download and read the Bible in various translations, including those published by non-Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, the Synodal Translation, which are widespread in Russia, the translations of Archimandrite Macarius, Archpriest Pavsky, and others. Various Bible commentaries and reference books, Bible study aids, videos, films and cartoons for children, Christian songs and music are also available.\n“Not all publications that are available for download are strictly religious,” says Yaroslav Sivulskiy of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. “They cover topics such as nature, science, history, morality, health, family life, etc. Here are just a few examples. articles: \"Alcohol: Soberly Assess the Consequences\", \"Don't Smoke Your Life\", \"May Your Family Be Happy\", \"Teenage Depression. Reasons and solutions”, “How to find a way to reconciliation”. Banning the JW Library application for the fact that someone can download something prohibited in Russia is like closing the library, assuming that there is a banned book in its archives.\"\nUpdate. On September 27, 2021, a panel of judges at the St. Petersburg City Court, chaired by Natalia Karsakova, upheld a lower court's decision to ban the JW Library app in the Russian Federation.\nThe lawsuit was filed by Sergey Zhukovsky, deputy prosecutor of St. Petersburg. Among the interested parties are the Ministry of Justice and Roskomnadzor. Russian representative offices of Apple and Google were also involved in the process.\nJW Library is one of the top 100 apps in the \"Books \u0026 Guides\" category for iOS and Android by the number of downloads. Every day it is opened by 8 million people in more than 200 countries. According to international certification agencies, this program is suitable for users of all ages, as it contains no inappropriate materials.\n","category":"literature","date":"2021-04-01T20:50:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/04/1/image_hu_cb02726a53d3e099.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/04/1/image_hu_a5c455c38451cf14.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/04/1/image_hu_8ff140cd112c7f3b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/04/1/image_hu_6e61019f6ccebd4f.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/04/1.html","regions":["stpetersburg"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","translations","app-ban","fsem"],"title":"A St. Petersburg court banned a popular JW Library mobile application","type":"news"},{"body":"On September 4, 2019, in the trial of six Jehovah's Witnesses in Saratov , the floor was given to the well-known religious scholar, Doctor of Philosophy, State Counselor of the Russian Federation Sergey Igorevich Ivanenko. Here are excerpts from his testimony.\nOn the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses. \"Jehovah's Witnesses can be called a denomination, it is an independent movement in Christianity. It is not the most numerous - according to the latest data, there are about 8 and a half million Jehovah's Witnesses in the world. One of the main features of Jehovah's Witnesses is that the so-called last days have now come, that is, Jesus Christ has already reigned in heaven as a rightful ruler, and Jehovah's Witnesses must obey him as their religious leader and mentor. Therefore, they must preach, very zealously fulfill the precepts that support the Holy Scripture of Christians - the Bible, and be guided by them in their daily lives.\n\"If Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the head of their congregation is Jesus Christ, he is the Son of God, if they recognize the Bible and study the Bible, call themselves Christians, from a religious point of view, they are also a trend within Christianity.\"\nOn the religious life and practice of Jehovah's Witnesses. \"Jehovah's Witnesses have a very significant feature: they do not rely on some harsh disciplines, the authority of some leaders, but try to form a conscience trained in the Bible among their followers, so that a person can independently, voluntarily make decisions following the Bible.\"\n\"Jehovah's Witnesses try to follow what is in the Bible, which should correspond to the principles that were laid down by Jesus Christ and his disciples in the first century AD.\"\n\"If we talk about joint confession of faith, which is expressed in Bible study, answering questions on biblical topics, singing songs that are also based on biblical texts, then Jehovah's Witnesses have an emphasized desire to rely on the Bible in everything. That is, if we are talking about a religious chant, at the very beginning there is necessarily a reference to which biblical text this term is based, the lyrics of the song, what it should express from the point of view of the religious needs and beliefs of the believer.\n\"They also have the conviction that Christians must necessarily carry out their religious life on the basis of meetings. And here, too, Jehovah's Witnesses analyze the New Testament, what is said about Jesus Christ, his disciples, his followers, about the first stages of the development of the Christian church... Jehovah's Witnesses are convinced that they should also practice their religious life in religious meetings.\"\n\"They emphasize that disciples of Jesus Christ can be recognized by the fact that there will be love between them.\"\nOn the alleged ban on the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. \"I am not aware of any court decisions or legislative acts that would say that the internal structure of Jehovah's Witnesses contradicts the legislation of the Russian Federation, and would contain any prohibitions related to the doctrine or cult practice of Jehovah's Witnesses.\"\n\"It was not about banning worship services, some kind of cult actions, but it was about what from the point of view of the Supreme Court was considered as extremist activity.\"\nAccusations of extremism against Jehovah's Witnesses. \"Initially, some publications of Jehovah's Witnesses were recognized as extremist, in which, according to experts, it was claimed that the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses was the only true one, and the rest of the religions were false. This statement is present in other denominations, but in this case the claims were made against Jehovah's Witnesses. The assertion that only their religion was true and that all others were false was interpreted as propaganda of religious superiority.\n\"[The court's decision] seems to me as a religious scholar to be vulnerable from the point of view that, if desired, in any religious denomination you can find the statement that only our religion is correct, and the rest are false or largely mistaken.\"\n\"If we talk about the fact that believers consider their religion to be absolute truth, and other religions are either completely false or essentially false, this is certainly present in any believer. And it must be present, because otherwise you will be credited with a hypocrite.\n\"Jehovah's Witnesses are pacifists, they are quite consistently pursuing a line so as not to destroy social foundations. Rather, they advocate the primacy of biblical principles. God's laws are a priority for them. But to the extent that God's laws do not contradict earthly laws, Jehovah's Witnesses are very consistent and purposeful in trying to keep earthly laws. It is no coincidence that there are quite a few reports that it is Jehovah's Witnesses who return some lost wallets, pay fines and taxes, although they can evade them. This is their conscious choice, and in this sense I would not blame them for any extremist encroachments.\"\nOn the need for legal entities to profess their faith. \"The decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation show that ... most of the congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses did not have a legal entity and were not registered. Therefore, it is wrong to say that any Jehovah's Witness in some territory is necessarily a member of a legal entity.\"\n\"The main content of the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses is carried out by those canonical structures that are created in accordance with biblical principles.\"\n\"As for legal entities ... I carefully studied their statutes, there are no overseers, no elders, no pioneers, none of these terms are present there. There we are usually talking about the founders - this is a limited circle of people, about 10 people. As for purely canonical activities, they reflect not the legal, but the canonical side of the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is the same in different countries and in different regions.\"\n\"Jehovah's Witnesses have taken note [of the Supreme Court's decision], that is, in their activities they strive not to explicitly violate this decision of the Supreme Court. But at the same time, they will continue their activities as a religious denomination that is not prohibited by the authorities. They continued their activities as private individuals professing their religion. That is, from their point of view, from a religious point of view, this activity does not violate the decision of the Supreme Court.\"\nOn the preaching activity of Jehovah's Witnesses. \"Jehovah's Witnesses are distinguished by the fact that they are very active in preaching. I would put Jehovah's Witnesses in the first place in terms of their preaching activity, zeal, so that every believer must be a preacher and devote some time to preaching.\"\n\"They usually say this: the Bible says this, a person can take the Bible himself and check it. If a person agrees, he goes along with them. If he disputes it, he doesn't go with them. There is no compulsion. But their explanation is consistent and logical in its own way. This is the attraction for some people of their preaching. Their preaching does not work, in my opinion, for everyone. If a person is more mystical, wants some revelations from God or some supernatural spiritual powers, he will not go to Jehovah's Witnesses ... And more rational people who want to reach everything with their minds, live in accordance with this consistently, they will come to Jehovah's Witnesses.\"\nOn the attitude of Jehovah's Witnesses to the Bible. The peculiarity of Jehovah's Witnesses is that they use any translation of the Bible both for preaching and for studying. They have a keen interest in distributing the Bible in different languages. In this sense, they are bibliocentric. Their own translation was indeed recognized as extremist in our country ... Perhaps those who accepted it thought that Jehovah's Witnesses were attached exclusively to this translation and if it was excluded from the game, Jehovah's Witnesses would give up. This is a wrong judgment. For Jehovah's Witnesses, each translation of the Bible has its own value.\"\nOn the attitude of Jehovah's Witnesses to blood transfusions. \"The Bible says that 'the soul is in the blood' and therefore blood should not be consumed. We are talking about a food ban, but they interpret it broadly. They believe that blood should not be consumed in any form: neither in food (they will not eat blood sausage), nor [in the form of] blood transfusions. But they agree to the use of small fractions of blood - this is the voluntary choice of the believer ... They are not for dying by refusing a blood transfusion, but for good treatment so that a person receives first-class medical care. The blood transfusion itself, from their point of view and from the point of view of many medical aspects, is dangerous, because you can get AIDS and something else. Bloodless surgery provides more guarantees, and often in reality – I looked at the statistics – wealthy people often prefer to do without blood transfusions, because it guarantees greater safety in terms of freedom from infections and complications.\nAbout the collection of donations by Jehovah's Witnesses. \"A person may not make any donations. He can, roughly speaking, go to meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses all his life and not donate a ruble or a dollar. But he can also sacrifice - that's his choice.\nDespite strong expert arguments that Jehovah's Witnesses are ordinary Christians and not criminals, all six defendants in the Saratov case were found guilty for their faith and sentenced to various prison terms. Persecution of hundreds of their fellow believers across the country continues.\nSergey Ivanenko is the author of two scientific papers on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. They can be found in the section \"Religious Studies\".\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-09-24T16:05:29+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/09/1155/ivanenko-01_hu_ccd7bda83d3d10ca.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/09/1155/ivanenko-01.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/09/1155/ivanenko-01_hu_d578c036ca8a6a83.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/09/1155/ivanenko-01_hu_1d4f29c069e489ac.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/09/1155.html","regions":["saratov"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","translations","expert-comments","review","liquidation","fsem","analytics"],"title":"The well-known religious scholar Sergey Ivanenko spoke in the trial of Jehovah's Witnesses. What did he say?","type":"news"},{"body":"It took the Russian authorities 9 years to implement the cunning plan. The chronology of the main stages, as well as the statements of analysts, are given in a 7-minute video.\nVideo footage of raids on peaceful Jehovah's Witnesses is shocking. How did law-abiding Jehovah's Witnesses become \"extremists\" in Russia?\nDecember 2009: The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared 34 publications of Jehovah's Witnesses \"extremist\"; LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Taganrog\" was liquidated\nAugust 2011: a criminal case under the article \"extremism\" was initiated against 16 Taganrog residents.\nApril 2013: Searches at the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia\nFebruary 2014: the beginning of systematic planting of \"extremist\" materials to believers, followed by searches.\nApril 2015: Jehovah's Witnesses are banned from importing Bible publications into Russia; Millions of magazines detained by Russian customs\nMarch 2016: guilty verdict for all 16 Taganrog residents; The sentence is up to 5.5 years in prison conditionally.\nJuly 2016: action of armed special forces against believers in Karelia; pressure on believers in different parts of Russia begins\nApril 2017: Russian Supreme Court liquidates all 396 Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in Russia citing \"extremism\"\nMay 2017: The first believer, Dennis Christensen, was sent to a pre-trial detention center in the city of Oryol.\nDecember 7, 2017: A St. Petersburg court legalized the seizure of real estate that housed the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia; the property is owned by a foreign owner, the Pennsylvania Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.\nDecember 20, 2017: The Leningrad Regional Court declared the Russian translation of the Bible distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses as \"extremist material.\"\nApril 2018: searches were conducted in Ufa, Anatoliy Vilitkevich was sent to a pre-trial detention center\nAlyona Vilitkevich : At 6:40 a.m., the doorbell rang.\nAlfiya Ilyasova: I was at home with my children.\nVenera Mikhailova: I saw armed men on the street.\nOlesya Yakimova: There were riot police vests, masks and machine guns.\nElena Kozhevnikova: There was a very loud knock, I had to open it.\nGulfiya Khafizova: When my husband opened the doors, this young man put a gun to my husband's face.\nVenera Mikhailova: A search has begun. They threw everywhere, climbed everywhere.\nGulfiya Khafizova: We were not allowed to communicate with each other, we were not allowed to call anyone.\nOlesya Yakimova: When we were brought to the investigative committee, going up to the 2nd floor, my mother immediately became ill, and she fainted.\nElena Kozhevnikova: I ran up to my sister, she was already lying on the floor, on the dirty floor. We shouted, \"Help, somebody!\"\nOlesya Yakimova: And just a crowd of people, men who surrounded me, looked at all this, as if it was really some kind of farce and circus.\nElena Kozhevnikova: Then the ambulance came. She was taken away. Her daughter was released with her, but I was not.\nOlesya Yakimova: That is, I actually almost lost my mother that day.\nAlfiya Ilyasova: I'm not afraid for myself, I'm afraid for my children. And what will they do without me.\nSuzanne and Artur Ilyasov: We didn't do anything wrong, but they came at us with machine guns, and as if we were some kind of criminals.\nOver the following months, dozens of such searches and arrests were carried out in Russia.\nYaroslav Sivulsky from the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses: \"During the hearing of the case in the Supreme Court, representatives of the Ministry of Justice repeatedly argued that the court's decision would not affect ordinary believers in any way. It will apply only to legal entities, but what do we see in fact? Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which guarantees freedom of conscience and religion, is being violated, and the norms of international law are being violated.\"\nMassimo Introvigne, Founding Director of the International Center for the Study of New Religions (Italy): \"During the fascist period, Jehovah's Witnesses faced persecution. However, they were not persecuted for extremism, but quite the opposite. They were persecuted for pacifism, for refusing to cooperate with the fascist regime, for not supporting militant speeches and public sentiments. It can be said that they were persecuted for not being extremists. So when I found out that Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia were being persecuted for extremism, it sounded ridiculous to me.\"\nMikhail Sitnikov, journalist: \"It turns out that in my country it is so easy to deal with, I emphasize this word \"crack down\", with a fairly large number of believers, with their dignity, their religious feelings. If it happened in some movie, yes, probably, it would be great, it would be a godsend - to show how you can mock people.\nAlexander Verkhovsky, member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation: \"Many of these repressive mechanisms are invented not for any particular group, but for some other threat, not religious, strictly speaking, but rather political. And then they are often used in quite unexpected ways.\nGerhard Bézier, religious scholar: \"Therefore, it would be very insidious to transfer the term 'extremism', a political term, to the religious sphere.\"\nMassimo Introvigne: \"I have yet to meet a single expert who would not agree that Russia's actions towards Jehovah's Witnesses are illegal, given the international Convention on Human Rights, which Russia is a signatory.\"\nAlexander Verkhovsky: \"In fact, with regard to Jehovah's Witnesses, this means that all, well, at least adult Jehovah's Witnesses, can potentially be prosecuted.\"\nMikhail Sitnikov: \"How to understand this? Like, look, you and I, like rabbits, can do anything. And not even just with you. But here he is, a Dane, because of him, a representative officially comes from Denmark, and we sneezed on it. As we did, so we will keep it. Intimidation? Who should be intimidated?\"\nAlexander Verkhovsky: \"There is not a single democratic country where such a mechanism would exist.\"\nMassimo Introvigne: \"One of Russia's goals is to give a semblance of legitimacy to the decision to liquidate Jehovah's Witnesses.\"\nGerhard Bézier: \"We must not give up trying to convey to the public what is happening.\"\nAs of August 8, 2018, there are 26 believers in the pre-trial detention center.\n","category":"overview","date":"2018-08-08T13:28:11+03:00","duration":"7:48","image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/08/414/how_jws_became_an_extremists_hu_78d1ab7bc705d235.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/08/414/how_jws_became_an_extremists.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/08/414/how_jws_became_an_extremists_hu_fc43d2caaf6c2d2a.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/08/414/how_jws_became_an_extremists_hu_c4f217835929130a.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/08/414.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","video","analytics","review","mro","plant","search","suspended","liquidation","bible-ban","human-rights-defenders","sizo"],"title":"How were believers in Russia turned into \"extremists\"?","type":"video"},{"body":"The reasoning part of the appellate ruling of December 20, 2017 banning the translation of the Bible under the publishing title \"Holy Scripture - New World Translation\" was provided by the Leningrad Regional Court three weeks later. The court had to find a way to overcome the direct indication of the law \"On Countering Extremist Activity\": \"The Bible, Koran, Tanakh and Ganjur, their content and quotations from them cannot be recognized as extremist materials.\" The court found an argument, and this argument turned out to be innovative, not heard during the trial.\nThe court determined: \"The arguments that a gray-bound book in Russian language with the title \"Holy Scripture - New World Translation\" is a Bible are rejected because the book does not contain the corresponding title \"Bible\", which is provided for by the system of standards for information, librarianship and publishing (GOST 7.80-2000), is actually a translation into Russian, it is based on the translation into English of ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek texts with significant changes, the existence of which is acknowledged by the authors of the New World Translation themselves.\" There is no other reasoning in the court's ruling.\nDuring the trial , GOST 7.80-2000 was not mentioned either by the transport prosecutor, who sought to ban the Bible, or by representatives of the publishing house. This standard, as follows from paragraph 1, regulates the work of libraries and other organizations engaged in bibliographic activities. It instructs librarians \"to use a unified, best-known title when compiling bibliographic records for editions of anonymous classical works published under different titles, editions of texts of scriptures, liturgical books published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and having various complex titles. For example, if the publication contains the full text of the Bible, it, according to this GOST, should be written as the \"Bible\"; if the edition contains only the Old Testament, then it should be written as \"The Bible. V. Z.\", and if the publication is called the Apocalypse, then it should be written as follows: \"The Bible. N. Z. Apocalypse\". At the same time, the need for this GOST stems precisely from the fact that the scriptures were published in Russian language under different titles, for example, \"Book of Praises\", \"Tegilim\", \"Psalms of David\", \"Psalter\".\nThus, the court applied this GOST 7.80-2000 erroneously, which led to a significant violation of the norms of substantive law, namely, to the non-application of the law to be applied (the provision prohibiting the recognition of religious texts, including the Bible, as extremist materials). According to the article of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, this is the basis for the cancellation of the court decision.\nThe proposition that \"the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures\" is not the Bible because \"the book . . . In fact, it is a translation into Russian, it is based on the translation into English of Hebrew and ancient Greek texts with significant changes\", is devoid of legal force, contradicts facts and common sense. Since the Bible was not written in Russian language, for most it is always a translation. In addition, many editions of the Bible, both in large and small languages, were the result of a two-stage translation, that is, a translation made from a translation. For example, the translation of the Old Testament part of the Church Slavonic Bible, which is still officially used in Orthodox worship, was made from a translation known as the Septuagint. The Synodal translation of the Bible, officially approved in Orthodoxy for home reading, also follows this tradition in many places.\nThe unjustified decision of such a high court to ban the Bible itself clearly demonstrates the depravity of the mechanisms for recognizing materials as \"extremist\". Since 2009, Jehovah's Witnesses have been confronted with the blatantly groundless inclusion of their worship materials on the ban list. Later, these court decisions became the reason for accusations of believers of \"extremist activity\", which eventually turned into a total ban, confiscation of property, fines, criminal cases and even imprisonment of individual believers.\n","category":"literature","date":"2018-01-24T18:19:29+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/01/282/gost4350_hu_2befb44a3561a0c7.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/01/282/gost4350.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/01/282/gost4350_hu_113b1d9669f72feb.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/01/282/gost4350_hu_6b3f234b21ede6f6.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/01/282.html","regions":["leningrad_obl","stpetersburg"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban"],"title":"The Leningrad Regional Court motivated the decision to ban the \"Holy Scriptures\" by the absence of the word \"Bible\" in the title","type":"news"},{"body":"On December 20, 2017, at 9:55 p.m., the Leningrad Regional Court upheld the decision of the Vyborg City Court to recognize the Russian translation of the Bible distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses as \"extremist material.\" Representatives of the copyright holder intend to appeal this decision.\nSuch erroneous court decisions to recognize certain printed materials as extremist are the basis of all accusations of extremism brought against Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as the basis of the court decision to liquidate and ban all registered organizations of this religion and turn their property into state revenue. The court's absurd decision to ban the Bible itself clearly demonstrated the flawed mechanisms for recognizing Witnesses' liturgical materials, including incompetent or openly biased expert opinions and law-violating court decisions. In 2014, the situation with expert examinations and lawsuits against sacred texts attracted the attention of the President of Russia, so he came up with a legislative initiative to protect the holy books of various religions, including the Bible, from the effect of anti-extremist legislation (in other words, from the incompetence of prosecutors, experts and judges). However, even this did not help to save one of the translations of the Bible from yesterday's court decision.\nInternational organizations have repeatedly called on Russia to abandon the existing List of Extremist Materials, to review and cancel court decisions against Jehovah's Witnesses, who are currently being treated unfairly on the basis of such court decisions.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-12-21T09:28:33+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/280/bible-02_0_0_hu_7033285b2b3c2e5f.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/280/bible-02_0_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/280/bible-02_0_0_hu_323b433476641398.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/280/bible-02_0_0_hu_1e46947cf32f323b.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/280.html","regions":["leningrad_obl","stpetersburg"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban"],"title":"The Court of Appeal upheld the unlawful decision to ban the translation of the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"During the hearings on December 20, 2017, it is planned to interrogate the experts whose conclusion is the basis of the decision of the court of first instance to recognize the Russian Bible, published by Jehovah's Witnesses since 2007, as \"extremist material.\" A text report from the courtroom is underway.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-12-20T12:41:29+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/279/img_2740_hu_ec5d41bd9b7c9674.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/279/img_2740.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/279/img_2740_hu_68ec12bb7d89262.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/279/img_2740_hu_5f77e8c147d1b890.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/279.html","regions":["leningrad_obl","stpetersburg"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban"],"title":"The Leningrad Regional Court is reviewing the decision to ban one of the Bible translations","type":"news"},{"body":"Experts will come to the Ostankino District Court of Moscow and from there answer questions from the Leningrad Regional Court (St. Petersburg) via videoconferencing. The court intends to clarify the inconsistencies noted in the examination.\nEarlier, the Vyborg court ruled to recognize the Russian Bible, published by Jehovah's Witnesses, as extremist material (Holy Scripture - New World Translation, 2007). The copyright holder, the Pennsylvania Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, did not agree with the court's decision and filed an appeal.\nThe first hearing in the appellate instance was held in the Leningrad Regional Court on December 6, 2017. The case is heard by a panel consisting of the presiding judge Larisa Gorbatova, the judge-rapporteur Tatyana Khruleva and the judge Igor Kosarev. During the hearing , the attention of the judges was attracted by obvious contradictions in the examination, on which the court of first instance relied, so it was decided to interview experts - Natalia Kryukova, V.S. Kotelnikov, A.E. Tarasov. The survey is scheduled for December 20, 2017.\nNatalia Kryukova is the permanent head of the Center for Socio-Cultural Expertise, whose work is the basis of many cases against Jehovah's Witnesses.\nThe case will be heard in the Leningrad Regional Court on December 20, 2017 at 14:30 at the address: St. Petersburg, Fontanka Embankment, 6. The experts will answer questions from the court, as well as representatives of the parties, while in the Ostankino District Court at 35, 1st Ostankinskaya Street, 312, Moscow. The participation of experts in the court session is ensured by the judge of the Ostankino court Olesya Sushkova (room 312).\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-12-19T13:07:52+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/278/171206_lenoblsud4234_hu_6ee15c9af0f51fe1.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/278/171206_lenoblsud4234.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/278/171206_lenoblsud4234_hu_ca579e781ec96f16.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/278/171206_lenoblsud4234_hu_cc79ef655ad5ddbc.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/278.html","regions":["stpetersburg","leningrad_obl","moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","expert-conclusions","interrogation","bible-ban","fabrications"],"title":"On December 20, a judicial interrogation of experts who found extremism in the Bible will take place","type":"news"},{"body":"On December 6, 2017, the Leningrad Regional Court is considering an appeal against the decision of the Vyborg Court to recognize the \"Holy Scripture - New World Translation\", the translation of the Bible published by Jehovah's Witnesses, as \"extremist material\". A text report from the courtroom is underway. ","category":"literature","date":"2017-12-06T10:24:45+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/271/lenoblsud-014172_1_hu_29928fc845495da.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/271/lenoblsud-014172_1.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/271/lenoblsud-014172_1_hu_953acaba4987ebfa.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/271/lenoblsud-014172_1_hu_af5893fcded8eadf.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/271.html","regions":["stpetersburg","leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","appeal","bible-ban"],"title":"Report from the Leningrad Regional Court on the case of the ban on one of the Russian translations of the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"\"The books of the Bible are written in different languages. There are a lot of options: canonical, non-canonical. The question of the canonicity of the text, most likely, should not, after all, be considered by a secular court.\nBut in any case, without going into casuistry, we already know that there are many translations of the Bible. These translations are different and will be different, just as the translations of any book are always different. Therefore, to say that it is in these differences ... I just can't imagine what the prosecutor will prove in court. That he will find any differences between the translation adopted by Jehovah's Witnesses and the translation of the Synodal and will prove that these differences are extremist? That would be the only logical way, so to speak, but I'm afraid you can't prove anything that way. Although we know how these processes are going on in our country. Often very rapidly, I would say.\nTherefore, unfortunately, it cannot be ruled out that the prosecutor's office will also benefit here. But, in general, this is still a very big scandal, so maybe someone, after all, will give up and this will not happen. If, however, the prosecutor's office wins, then there will, of course, be problems for Jehovah's Witnesses. But, problems can arise in other people too. And not because they accidentally got the Bible in the wrong translation. They may not have even noticed. After all, not everyone understands it that way. But simply because it opens up prospects for the most unexpected bans further. This, in general, depends on the imagination, to a large extent. Therefore, it would be better, of course, for the state not to embark on this slippery slope, because it is completely incomprehensible where it will lead.\nAlexander Verkhovsky, Director of the SOVA Information and Analytical Center, member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights. ","category":"opinion","date":"2017-12-05T14:23:37+03:00","duration":"1:45","image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/269/verkhovsky_image_hu_549f9e29652a202f.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/269/verkhovsky_image.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/269/verkhovsky_image_hu_2056bb17b6c99535.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/269/verkhovsky_image_hu_c918b8d7d9a2f47b.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/269.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","expert-comments","bible-ban"],"title":"Alexander Verkhovsky: \"It would be better for the state not to embark on this slippery slope\"","type":"video"},{"body":"\"I am an employee of the Institute of Oriental Studies, I teach ancient languages, including some biblical disciplines. Participated in the Bible translation project.\nI am not very familiar with this translation, but I have some complaints, purely linguistic, historical and cultural. Everyone has the right, if he is competent enough to do so, to translate and interpret the biblical text. At the same time, others have the right to criticize him.\nOne perfect translation would be good, but it is impossible, because there is no perfection in the world. And when there are several alternative translations on which you can say something like that, then this is an absolute blessing. The translation of 70 interpreters, judging by the original source, was done in this way. They translated everything, and then they got together and consulted.\nEvgenia Smagina, Head of the Department of History and Culture of the Ancient East of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, translator of the Bible.\n","category":"opinion","date":"2017-12-04T12:16:14+03:00","duration":"1:00","image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/267/smagina_image_hu_a581b5f155688434.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/267/smagina_image.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/267/smagina_image_hu_c0598b228c555258.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/267/smagina_image_hu_30a115e88e0246a8.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/267.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","expert-comments","bible-ban","translations"],"title":"Evgenia Smagina: \"Several alternative translations are an absolute blessing\"","type":"video"},{"body":"\"I have an idea about both the translation and the trial. As for the translation, it is one of the translations of the Bible, and it has supporters and those who criticize some particular points. This is natural. There is not a single perfect translation. And I believe that many translations of the Bible are needed. Different approaches are needed. And in this sense, the New World Translation occupies its own, I would say, legitimate niche. Moreover, there are some interesting finds, so to speak. As for this trial, the situation when it is said that this is extremism and that it is supposedly not the Bible, I want to emphasize once again: in the academic environment, one can criticize the New World Translation in the same way as the Synodal Translation. And, by the way, there is still a big question: if we compare with the Hebrew and Greek originals, then in some parts there may be a Synodal translation more precisely, in others - the New World Translation, and so on. But this is a translation of the Bible. Any attempt to claim that this is some other book is simply ignorant. Every person who picks up this translation sees that it is a translation of the Bible. You see, you can argue about some terms, about what the instrument of execution of Jesus Christ looked like. But, sorry, it's up to the professionals. And when they try to tell us that the \"cross\" is normal, and the \"pillar\" is extremism, it would be funny when it was not so sad! I would say so. Because we are talking, of course, about an attempt to ban the Bible.\nIt may seem that I speak harshly of the Synodal translation. It's not that. He played a huge historical positive role, but, sorry, it's been 150-160 years.\nThere is no reference translation. And I think that it will not be. You see, there must be different translations. Just as there is no normative translation of anything - the tragedies of Shakespeare or the poetry of Byron. In each generation, new translators come and are taken again. And such a book as the Bible ... Naturally, more and more translations will be needed.\"\nNikolay Shaburov, PhD in Cultural Studies, Professor, Head of the Educational and Research Center for the Study of Religions of the Russian State University for the Humanities.\n","category":"opinion","date":"2017-12-02T12:25:08+03:00","duration":"3:35","image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/266/shaburov_image_hu_6b29c972fa3ab94e.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/266/shaburov_image.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/266/shaburov_image_hu_590404133deb2664.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/266/shaburov_image_hu_ef9252b8a4c459a6.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/266.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","expert-comments","bible-ban"],"title":"Nikolay Shaburov: \"This is a translation of the Bible. Attempts to assert otherwise are simply ignorant.\"","type":"video"},{"body":"\"Some strange philological examination was made, which began with the words that this is the text of the translation of the Bible, and ended with the fact that it is not the Bible. Appealing to the fact that it is not written there, that it was published with the blessing of the patriarch.\nThere are a huge number of translations of the Bible and, regardless of the quality and number of these translations, they are all translations of the Bible. As we all know, none of these sacred texts are written in Russian language. All of them are presented in the Russian Federation to believers in one translation or another.\nWhat does it mean that a translation can be considered extremist? The text itself can be recognized as extremist, while the translation is secondary to the text. That is, by recognizing a translation as extremist, we essentially recognize the text itself as extremist. And then any translation of it, into any language, will also be extremist.\nSuch trials of holy books can destabilize the religious situation in the country. Naturally, such a treatment of the Holy Book looks, of course, rather strange, and it can hardly please a believer of any religious direction.\nWhen the ban on the Qur'an in Guliyev's translation was issued, we, probably three years ago, argued, I remember, with colleagues on this topic, and one of them, maybe even me, said: well: will the Bible be next? Unfortunately, our foresight came true.\"\nEkaterina Elbakyan, Doctor of Philosophy, religious scholar, executive secretary of the editorial board of the scientific and theoretical journal \"Religious Studies\".\n","category":"opinion","date":"2017-12-01T12:33:57+03:00","duration":"1:47","image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/265/elbakyan_image_0_hu_66a853014cc5a205.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/265/elbakyan_image_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/265/elbakyan_image_0_hu_61e2e1c6b2e515fb.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/265/elbakyan_image_0_hu_7102a9ceb5ad7d60.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/265.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","expert-comments","bible-ban"],"title":"Ekaterina Elbakyan: \"By recognizing the translation as extremist, we recognize the text itself as extremist\"","type":"video"},{"body":"\"I have been engaged in one way or another in the practice and theory of Bible translation for the past 24 years. These works were carried out at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I have a lot of questions about the New World Translation, and I have spoken and written about this more than once. I consider it unfortunate. But I believe that this question should be decided among themselves by colleagues - orientalists, philologists, and that it has nothing to do with the prosecutor's office, the court and everything else. Here at the Institute of Oriental Studies, behind my back, they study, translate, study the Bible, the Koran, and traditional texts of Buddhism. Then it turns out that at any moment any of our texts, translations, any of our studies can be declared extremist simply because it does not coincide with someone's understanding of these texts. Therefore, for me it is categorically unacceptable. This is a question for professionals and for readers who can choose what to read. But to impose on them a certain unified interpretation as universally binding, in the end, is against the Constitution of Russia, where no religion can be considered a state religion.\nAndrey Desnitsky, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bible translator, biblical scholar.\n","category":"opinion","date":"2017-11-30T20:57:38+03:00","duration":"1:05","image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/11/264/vlcsnap-error9452594_hu_185365f58694513c.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/11/264/vlcsnap-error9452594.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/11/264/vlcsnap-error9452594_hu_18e32c1c4f85e238.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/11/264/vlcsnap-error9452594_hu_afc18058868c4966.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/11/264.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","expert-comments","bible-ban"],"title":"Andriy Desnitsky: \"This is a matter for professionals and readers, not for the prosecutor's office and the court\" ","type":"video"},{"body":"On December 6, 2017, the Leningrad Regional Court will consider an appeal against the decision of the Vyborg City Court, which recognized the Bible (!) with the publishing title \"Holy Scripture – New World Translation\" as \"extremist material\".\nThe complaint, consisting of 141 points and thoroughly proving the groundlessness and illegality of the decision of the court of first instance, was filed on September 21, 2017.\nThe hearing will begin on December 6, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. and will be held at the address: St. Petersburg, Fontanka Embankment, 6.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-11-29T21:45:11+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/11/263/lenoblsud-014172_hu_5f7e8f84c0d31488.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/11/263/lenoblsud-014172.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/11/263/lenoblsud-014172_hu_14ea08076792aab9.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/11/263/lenoblsud-014172_hu_bb6d1bcbbeb983f6.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/11/263.html","regions":["stpetersburg"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","appeal","bible-ban","complaints"],"title":"The Court of Appeal will review the decision to ban the translation of the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"On September 21, 2017, an appeal was filed with the Leningrad Regional Court against the decision of the Vyborg City Court, which recognized as extremist material and decided to confiscate the Bible with the publishing title \"Holy Scripture - New World Translation\". The complaint (below) consists of 141 points and thoroughly proves the groundlessness and illegality of the court's decision.\nIn its decision, the court refers to the examination carried out by the teacher Natalia Kryukova, who does not have the qualifications to perform such a study. Moreover, the conclusion of this \"expert\" contradicts the scientific conclusions of higher-level specialists who are authoritative scientists in the field of linguistics and religious studies, studied during the court hearings .\nThe lawyers ask the court to overturn the decision of the Vyborg court and completely refuse the Leningrad-Finland transport prosecutor's request to recognize the Bible as extremist material.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-09-22T15:58:39+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/09/221/appeal-picture3920_hu_ce36dc7346bfbc33.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/09/221/appeal-picture3920.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/09/221/appeal-picture3920_hu_b4d92b6d45ba0829.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/09/221/appeal-picture3920_hu_6e3d508a3f457ad8.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/09/221.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","appeal","studies-violations"],"title":"Appeal against the decision of the Vyborg court to ban the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"An appeal to the Leningrad Regional Court against the decision of the Vyborg City Court, which recognized as extremist material and decided to confiscate the Bible with the publishing title \"Holy Scripture - New World Translation\". The complaint consists of 141 points and thoroughly proves the groundlessness and illegality of the court's decision.\n","date":"2017-09-21T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/261.html","regions":["stpetersburg"],"tags":["bible-ban","complaints"],"title":"Appeal against the decision of the Vyborg court to ban the Bible","type":"docs"},{"body":"Late in the evening of August 17, 2017, the Vyborg City Court announced its decision: to recognize as extremist material the translation of the Bible into modern Russian, which was seized at customs from Jehovah's Witnesses. The entire detained consignment must be confiscated for destruction. This decision has not entered into force and will be appealed to the Leningrad Regional Court.\nRussia was the first European country to officially ban the translation of the Bible. The historic decision was made by Judge Dmitry Grishin at the request of the prosecutor's office. During the hours-long hearings , Grishin was given an exhaustive opportunity to make sure that the subject of the trial was the Bible, a book that, according to the law, cannot be recognized as extremist material. During the meetings, dozens of fragments were read out from it, whole stacks of different editions of the Bible were presented, comparisons and comparisons of texts were carried out. Dozens of texts from the Bible were read directly by Judge Grishin. The most authoritative experts in the field of linguistics and religious studies were invited to the court from Moscow, who answered all the questions of the parties and the court. Prosecutors who pushed for the Bible to be banned were unable to identify a single Bible quote that they believed could be considered extremism. Nevertheless, to everyone's surprise, the court decided to recognize the Bible as extremist material.\nThis lawsuit is based on the expert opinion of Natalia Kryukova, who, without citing a single quote from the text of the Bible, nevertheless comes to the conclusion that this book is extremist material. The logic of this expert opinion is that this Bible is extremist material because it is used by Jehovah's Witnesses. The court ignored other scientific opinions, examinations and reviews available in the case, which convincingly prove that Kryukova's conclusion is unscientific and contradictory and that the Bible that became the subject of the lawsuit is in fact the Bible. It is noteworthy that the teacher-mathematician Natalia Kryukova does not have an education that gives her the right to conduct this study.\nJudge Dmitry Grishin holds a Ph.D. in Law. When the lawyers showed him that the Bible translation was included in the Catalog of Bible Translations published by the Library of Congress, Grishin told the parties that he had spent many days doing his research at the Library of Congress. Nevertheless, on August 17, 2017, Grishin issued a decision to ban the Bible - a decision that is contrary to science, law and common sense!\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-08-18T14:24:37+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/08/206/img_0350_hu_96cf3f5c7c478698.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/08/206/img_0350.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/08/206/img_0350_hu_9d8176fdac0057fe.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/08/206/img_0350_hu_43b01b6532336005.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/08/206.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban","studies-violations"],"title":"In Russia, the court banned the modern translation of the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"In Vyborg, on August 17, the hearing on the case of the ban of the Bible continues. A report from the courtroom is underway.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-08-17T14:58:27+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/08/205/img_62622369_0_0_hu_bb736f45bb63123f.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/08/205/img_62622369_0_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/08/205/img_62622369_0_0_hu_9e57d641156e7e55.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/08/205/img_62622369_0_0_hu_5669ba6315ab75b2.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/08/205.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban"],"title":"Report: Trial of the Bible in Vyborg","type":"news"},{"body":"On August 9, 2017, in the Vyborg City Court, the hearing on the Bible ban lasted 11 hours! The case is being heard by Judge Dmitry Grishin.\nThe process attracted many observers, including journalists and foreign diplomats. The hall could accommodate only a small part of those who came, but the judge allowed the door to the auditorium to be left open, so that the listeners, standing in the corridor, could follow the process. The organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses of Germany (publisher and producer of the Bible), the United States of America (the owner of the copyright in the translation) and Finland (the carrier from whom the shipment of Bibles was seized) participate as interested parties.\nSince we are talking about such a respected and culture-forming book as the Bible, an authoritative scientist in the field of text examination was invited to participate in the case as a specialist - Anatoly Nikolaevich Baranov, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head of the Department of Experimental Lexicography of the Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, author of the textbook \"Linguistic Examination of the Text\". For almost 2 hours, the scientist answered questions from the parties and the court. Among other things, he explained to the court the nuances associated with the translation. For example, what is meant by the term \"Bible\"? Can its Russian translation be considered a \"Bible\"? Is it possible to establish the identity of a translation by comparing it with another translation? Although the answers to these questions seem self-evident, they are very important for establishing all the facts in this case, given that in Russia the Bible has a special immunity from anti-extremist legislation.\nThe hearing is scheduled to continue at 9:30 a.m. on August 16, 2017. The court is scheduled to interview a religious scholar.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-08-10T16:26:12+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/08/202/img_62622369_0_hu_95ad45ddce94f4a2.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/08/202/img_62622369_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/08/202/img_62622369_0_hu_11447cc39a76dc39.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/08/202/img_62622369_0_hu_5826a542edf3e2b5.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/08/202.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban","expert-comments"],"title":"A lexicologist was questioned in the Vyborg court in the case of banning the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"On August 9, 2017, the Vyborg City Court (Leningrad Region) continues hearings on the claim of the transport prosecutor's office to recognize the Bible seized at customs from Jehovah's Witnesses as \"extremist material.\"\nThis is a modern translation of the Bible from 2007, known as the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Earlier , customs blocked the import of 2,016 copies of this Bible into Russia. Later, Jehovah's Witnesses were also banned from importing batches of Bibles in the official translation of the Russian Orthodox Church (Synodal Edition) and the \"Cognitive Bible\" published by the Russian Bible Society.\nOn March 15, 2016, the Vyborg City Court began hearings on the ban on the New World Translation. The lawsuit of the prosecutor's office caused bewilderment among religious scholars and human rights activists, including members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights L. Alekseeva, A. Verkhovsky, V. Ryakhovsky.\nBefore filing the lawsuit, the prosecutor's office enlisted the support of the \"expert\" Natalia Kryukova, known for the authorship of about 50 \"scientific\" conclusions against Jehovah's Witnesses. Substituting the objects of study, the \"expert\" stated that this translation of the Bible is \"extremist\" only because it is used by Jehovah's Witnesses!\nHowever, the Vyborg City Court went further: in violation of the logic of legal proceedings, violating a number of provisions of the legislation of the Russian Federation, Judge Roman Petrov sent the Bible for forensic examination by the same N. Kryukova! Despite the fact that the current legislation prohibits the appointment of an examination in an institution whose head has already conducted research on this subject. The court's actions are most surprising in light of the fact that the Bible simply cannot be subjected to examination for extremism, since the President of the Russian Federation made a special amendment to the law on extremism that protects sacred texts, including the Bible, from anti-extremist legislation.\nIn her new \"expert opinion\" of June 6, 2017, N. Kryukova expectedly came to the conclusion that there is extremism in this translation of the Bible! In support of her conclusions, she quotes at least 12 times (!): \"God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and the nearby city of Gomorrah. All their wicked inhabitants perished.\"\nThe unjust inclusion of printed materials of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Federal List of Extremist Materials is the only reason for all accusations of extremism against the official representative offices of this religion, which led to their total ban in Russia.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-08-09T17:10:53+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/08/201/bible-03_0_hu_1c9c61e19a20a205.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/08/201/bible-03_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/08/201/bible-03_0_hu_238cbe1ec596c173.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/08/201/bible-03_0_hu_541ddb29d3eb5506.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/08/201.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban","studies-violations"],"title":"In Vyborg, the issue of banning the Bible is being decided","type":"news"},{"body":"On July 28, 2017, hearings resumed on the first case in the history of Russia on the prohibition of Bible translation. Despite the petition, a spacious courtroom was not provided for the trial, so only 7 people could enter the hall as listeners.\nWithin minutes of the start, the trial was postponed because one of the parties, namely the temporary storage warehouse, where the batch of Bibles detained at customs was kept, had not been properly notified of the hearing.\nThe hearing will continue on August 9, 2017 at 9:30 a.m.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-07-28T20:12:17+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/07/199/img_62622369_hu_7280056536de0ef2.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/07/199/img_62622369.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/07/199/img_62622369_hu_4b5f685ee7735773.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/07/199/img_62622369_hu_8770aae8d9241d64.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/07/199.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban"],"title":"The trial of the Bible was postponed until August 9","type":"news"},{"body":"On July 28, 2017, the Vyborg City Court (Leningrad Region) resumes hearings on the claim of the Leningrad-Finland Transport Prosecutor to recognize the canonical Bible seized from Jehovah's Witnesses at customs as \"extremist material.\" The court received an \"examination\", the authors of which criticize this publication from the standpoint of Orthodox apologetics and attribute extremist content to it!\nThis \"examination\" was carried out by the teacher Natalia Kryukova, the author of about 50 similar conclusions against Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as her constant co-authors - the Orthodox religious scholar V. Kotelnikov and the translator from English A. Tarasov. Earlier, an application was filed with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to initiate a criminal case against Kryukova for giving false expert opinions (Article 307 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). For example, on the basis of the conclusions of this \"expert\", two believers in the Moscow region were subjected to unfair criminal prosecution for many years.\nN. Kryukova's actions in relation to her assessment of the Bible seized from Jehovah's Witnesses are indicative. In her conclusion of June 6, 2017, Kryukova, proving that this publication is not the Bible, reports: \"In the book \"Holy Scripture - New World Translation\" there are no generally accepted names \"Old Testament\" and \"New Testament\", these sections are called respectively \"Judeo-Aramaic Scriptures\" and \"Christian Greek Scriptures\". And as an argument in favor of the \"extremist\" nature of the material submitted for examination, the authors of the conclusion at least 12 times (!) cite the following quote: \"God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and the nearby city of Gomorrah. All their wicked inhabitants perished.\"\nThe attempt to recognize the Bible itself as extremist seems implausible against the background of the fact that in the fall of 2015, the Russian president put forward and signed a law protecting the Holy Scriptures, including the Bible, from anti-extremist legislation. Nevertheless, the prosecutor's lawsuit is a fait accompli: on Friday, July 28, 2017, the court may for the first time in history recognize the canonical Bible as \"extremist material\"!\nThe decision in this case may affect many people, since the Bible is a respected and widespread book in Russia. There are at least 50 different translations of the whole Bible or sections of the Bible in Russian language. The prosecutor's lawsuit has already drawn unanimous condemnation from human rights activists and religious scholars.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-07-27T18:06:39+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/07/198/bible-02_0_hu_b1908c2694b4e5d3.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/07/198/bible-02_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/07/198/bible-02_0_hu_864a5c3fd99b9d8b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/07/198/bible-02_0_hu_928a791cfcf73520.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/07/198.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban","studies-violations"],"title":"On July 28, the trial of the Bible resumes in Vyborg","type":"news"},{"body":"On February 7, 2017, an application was filed with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to initiate a criminal case against the prolific \"expert on extremism\" Natalia Nikolaevna Kryukova, the author of about 50 \"examinations\" against Jehovah's Witnesses. The evidence base sufficient to initiate a criminal case was collected by a lawyer who analyzed a number of high-profile cases related to believers of this religion.\nLawyer Viktor Zhenkov considers the activities of N. Kryukova to be a \"crime against justice\". Liability for such an offence, namely for giving false expert opinions to the court or the investigation, is provided for in article 307 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In addition, in the activities of the expert, the lawyer sees signs of incitement to hatred, violation of equality of human and civil rights and freedoms, violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion (Articles 282, 136, 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).\nAccording to the lawyer, the expert, not even having a basic philological education, misled the courts by performing \"linguistic\" examinations of the printed publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as \"acts of speech activity\" of individual believers. (Natalia Nikolaevna is a mathematician and teacher by education.) Going beyond his competence, the expert cannot fail to understand that his actions lead to miscarriages of justice, which, in turn, hurt the lives of thousands of innocent people. One example is the long-term criminal prosecution of two believers in Sergiev Posad.\nIn addition, the expert's work uses the tactics of substituting the objects of study. For example, in the operative part of one of her examinations, N. Kryukova declares the presence of signs of \"extremism\" in the 115 printed publications listed by her, however, judging by the research part of the conclusion, the expert did not analyze them at all, but oral speech recorded on digital media, which is not related to 115 printed publications.\nThe actions of N. Kryukova in relation to her assessment of the Bible are indicative. According to lawyers, these actions can be qualified as forgery. To \"find\" signs of extremism in the Bible published by Jehovah's Witnesses (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, 2007), the expert turned to the book What Does the Bible Really Teach?, which in 2010 was included in the List of Extremist Materials under number 510 (the decision to include it is being challenged by the ECHR). Having discovered that this book is completely based on the Bible, the expert concludes: it means that the Bible itself is also \"extremist\"! (Certificate of study dated August 3, 2015).\nThere are more than enough such examples, since N. Kryukova's \"expertise\" is in demand by representatives of law enforcement agencies, who are increasing the indicators of the fight against extremism on law-abiding Jehovah's Witnesses. On February 21, 2014, N. Kryukova established her own organization \"Center for Socio-Cultural Expertise\". To participate in the preparation of examinations against Jehovah's Witnesses, N. Kryukova also attracts his like-minded people - V.I. Batov, A.E. Tarasov and V.S. Kotelnikov.\nAccording to the law, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is obliged to conduct an audit of the activities of \"experts\" and make a procedural decision.\n","category":"literature","date":"2017-02-09T17:21:34+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/02/95/legalcase218_hu_9b4f1f4c1b3f9a75.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/02/95/legalcase218.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/02/95/legalcase218_hu_28b7a7940287e308.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/02/95/legalcase218_hu_568e7e515bd54e11.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/02/95.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["studies-violations","fabrications","slander","bible-ban","fsem"],"title":"The Investigative Committee received materials on an \"expert\" who denigrates Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"The inclusion of a number of books by Jehovah's Witnesses in the FSEM is the only reason for accusations of extremism brought against followers of this religion in Russia. Why are Bible-based publications, freely distributed throughout the world in hundreds of languages, declared \"extremist\" in Russia?\n1. Due to the unclear definition of extremism in the law. In 2015, the UN Human Rights Committee recommended that the Russian state \"revise the Federal Law 'On Countering Extremist Activities' without undue delay in order to ... establishing clear and specific criteria by which certain materials can be classified as extremist. All necessary measures should be taken to prevent the arbitrary application of this law and the Federal List of Extremist Materials should be revised\" (CCPR/C/SR.3157, Concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of the Russian Federation).\n2. Due to errors of experts or judges. Court decisions, sometimes contrary to common sense, are based on expert opinions. The obvious bias or incompetence of specialists led to the appearance of a concretizing provision in the law on extremism: \"The Bible, the Koran, the Tanakh and Ganjur, their content and quotations from them cannot be recognized as extremist materials\" (Article 3.1). Unfortunately, despite this, the courts continue to receive lawsuits from the prosecutor's office to recognize the Bible itself, as well as publications with its quotations, as \"extremist materials\".\n3. Due to the selective application of \"anti-extremist\" legislation. Lev Levinson, an expert at the Institute for Human Rights, explained: \"The campaign of persecution of [Jehovah's] Witnesses for statements common to all religious texts is a gross violation of the constitutional principle of freedom of conscience and equality of religious associations before the law. I am not calling for the same approach to be applied to the Russian Orthodox Church or Jewish communities, but only to emphasize its discriminatory and absurd nature.\" The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation in his report for 2012 noted: \"The religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses remains the \"record holder\" for the number of such inspections. [...] Organizations are actually deprived of the opportunity to defend their sacred values in court, challenging the opinions of experts on the part of the prosecution. [...] Any creed is based on the position of its own \"truth\" and the \"falsity\" of other creeds.\nThere have been dark pages in the history of various countries when a ban was imposed on the translation and distribution of the Bible. In some cases, it came to the mass destruction of this book and the persecution of those who owned it. That is why many sensible people in Russia are trying to prevent a repeat of the mistakes of the past.\n","category":"faq","date":"2017-01-04T10:01:09+03:00","duration":null,"image":false,"permalink":"/en/news/about/faq/2.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","fsem","review","unhrc"],"title":"Why Are Some Publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses Included in the ‘Extremist List’ (FLEM)?","type":"news"},{"body":"The conclusion was prepared on the basis of lawyers' requests of V.L. Shipilov and A.N. Bogdanov. Modern Translation (VTI)\", \"The Bible is a New World Translation\", \"The Bible is a Translation of the Russian Bible Society\", \"The Bible is a Translation of the Bible Translation Institute\".\n","date":"2016-04-20T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/254.html","regions":["moscow"],"tags":["bible-ban","expert-conclusions"],"title":"Baranov A., Dobrovolsky D. Linguistic conclusion. Bible","type":"docs"},{"body":"The conclusion was prepared on the basis of the lawyer's request of Bogdanov A.N. The object of the study is the translation of the Bible \"Holy Scripture – New World Translation\".\n","date":"2016-04-11T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/253.html","regions":["sverdlovsk"],"tags":["bible-ban","expert-conclusions"],"title":"Medvedev A. Religious conclusion. Bible","type":"docs"},{"body":"Members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Lyudmila Alekseeva, Alexander Verkhovsky and Vladimir Ryakhovsky speak about the demand of the prosecutor's office to recognize the Bible seized from Jehovah's Witnesses as \"extremist material.\"\n","category":"opinion","date":"2016-03-30T10:10:10+03:00","duration":"3:19","image":{"jpg":"/news/2016/03/11/nwt_2016_cover_hu_2ca8bdd06de02fd4.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2016/03/11/nwt_2016_cover_hu_de7af7ce56a3f2ef.jpg","webp":"/news/2016/03/11/nwt_2016_cover_hu_93d1820d1cd6f87d.webp","webp2x":"/news/2016/03/11/nwt_2016_cover_hu_7c07aafea4ad866d.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2016/03/11.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","video","presidential-council","expert-comments","human-rights-defenders"],"title":"A lawsuit to recognize the Bible as extremist. What do human rights activists say?","type":"video"},{"body":"The study was carried out on the basis of the lawyer's request of Bogdanov A.N. The object of the study was the translation of the Bible \"Holy Scripture – New World Translation\".\n","date":"2016-03-08T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/252.html","regions":["moscow"],"tags":["bible-ban","expert-conclusions"],"title":"Odintsov M. Religious conclusion. Bible","type":"docs"},{"body":"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).\nThe 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.\n","category":"literature","date":"2016-02-11T14:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2016/02/31/bible-02_hu_449876c8a0ee6163.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2016/02/31/bible-02.jpg","webp":"/news/2016/02/31/bible-02_hu_a78efed9441b4440.webp","webp2x":"/news/2016/02/31/bible-02_hu_7480bbf39dc5c13c.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2016/02/31.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["Bible-ban","bible-ban","translations"],"title":"For the first time in history, the prosecutor's office is seeking to ban the Bible itself through the courts!","type":"news"},{"body":"The complaint was filed by the Watch Tower Society. The Commission on Human Rights of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation submitted to the Court an opinion that the recognition of the site as \"extremist\" violated the right of believers to judicial protection, since the case was considered without the owner of the site.\nThe court refused to consider the complaint without eliminating the legal uncertainty, as a result of which sites can be recognized as extremist without granting their owners the right to effective legal protection. There is also no proper assessment of the fact that the site is recognized as \"extremist\" in the absence of materials from the FSEM on it, but only because such materials may appear on it!\n","category":"literature","date":"2016-02-02T14:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2016/02/34/website-01_hu_541d885d7cba42a1.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2016/02/34/website-01.jpg","webp":"/news/2016/02/34/website-01_hu_da99740040137c5e.webp","webp2x":"/news/2016/02/34/website-01_hu_ec4df2dd52c50696.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2016/02/34.html","regions":["stpetersburg"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["complaints","courtroom","website","fsem","bible-ban"],"title":"The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation issued a ruling on the website of Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"On July 13, 2015, customs in the Russian city of Vyborg (Leningrad Region) unexpectedly detained a large shipment of Bibles. This is a New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures published by Jehovah's Witnesses. Customs officers not only seized the entire shipment of 2013 copies of the Bible, but even opened a case against the Jehovah's Witnesses center in Finland, from which the shipment came.\nJehovah's Witnesses have faced bans and seizures of their literature before, but this is the first time that law enforcement agencies have paid attention to the Bible. It is particularly surprising that the customs ordered an examination to establish whether the Bible in question was \"extremist.\" Russia may become the only country in the world in which the Bible, the holy scripture of several world religions, will be recognized as \"extremist literature.\"\nThe case of the inclusion of the New World Translation in the Federal List of Extremist Materials is currently being considered in the Vyborg City Court. If this edition of the Bible is on the list, its distribution will be banned throughout the country. This will be a serious restriction of the constitutional rights of citizens, because the freedom to choose religion, including sacred texts, is guaranteed by Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.\nIn some languages of the peoples of Russia, the New World Translation is the only complete edition of the Bible. One of these languages is Ossetian. As a result of the ban, all Christians who speak this language will not be able to read the full Bible.\nThe possible recognition of the Bible as extremist seems especially strange due to the fact that in November 2015 the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law prohibiting the recognition of the Bible and other sacred texts as extremist. Prior to that, Russian courts had twice rejected attempts to recognize well-known sacred texts as such (the Bhagavad-gita in 2011 and the Koran in 2013).\nThe Russian authorities do not limit themselves to confiscating only the Bible from Jehovah's Witnesses. Arbitrary detentions of various Bible literature have been going on since March 2015. Each time, in order to confiscate another batch of literature, law enforcement officers send copies of it for \"examination\", which necessarily finds supposedly signs of extremism in it. Customs officers continue to seize literature even though Jehovah's Witnesses have provided court decisions and expert examinations confirming that it does not contain any signs of extremism. Customs simply ignores these documents.\nJehovah's Witnesses sincerely hope that common sense will prevail and Russian officials will abandon attempts to ban the Bible, a book of books. \"If they are not stopped by knowledgeable people, it will be a disgrace to the whole world, because the Bible is a great book that is read not only by Christians around the world, but all over the world,\" says Lyudmila Alekseeva, a human rights activist and member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation.\n","category":"discrimination","date":"2016-02-01T14:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":false,"permalink":"/en/news/2016/02/41.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["border-control","Bible-ban","bible-ban"],"title":"Customs Blocks Bible Shipments to Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"On January 14, 2016, a complaint was filed with the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region against the actions of the customs, which on November 27, 2015 again blocked the import into Russia of holy books for the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. This time, a batch of Bibles in the official translation of the Russian Orthodox Church (Synodal Edition), as well as a batch of the \"Cognitive Bible\" issued by the RBS, were not allowed into the country. Earlier, the Vyborg customs did not allow 2,016 copies of the New World Translation of the Bible in Russian and Ossetian languages to enter Russia.\n","category":"discrimination","date":"2016-01-18T14:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2016/01/35/bible-03_hu_88585b9dc898585a.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2016/01/35/bible-03.jpg","webp":"/news/2016/01/35/bible-03_hu_51b1dc42f081d70b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2016/01/35/bible-03_hu_9e4bac3627269279.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2016/01/35.html","regions":["leningrad_obl"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["border-control","Bible-ban"],"title":"Vyborg customs again blocks the import of Bibles into Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"The study was carried out on the basis of the request of the Vyborg customs. The object of the study was the translation of the Bible \"Holy Scripture – New World Translation\".\n","date":"2015-08-03T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/251.html","regions":["moscow"],"tags":["bible-ban","studies-violations"],"title":"Kotelnikov V., Tarasov A., Kryukova N. Information about the study. Bible","type":"docs"}]