Russia Ban: Jehovah’s Witnesses Take Case To European Court

Jehovah’s Witnesses said it will appeal a ban on it by Russia at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Speaking on Tuesday, Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a member of the European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses, said the religious group has “exhausted” all its options.

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The decision comes hours after Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the disbanding of the Jehovah’s Witnesses on Russian territory.

The ban came into effect after the court rejected an appeal by the religious group against a ruling in April which declared it to be extremist.

“We plan to appeal this at the European Court of Human Rights as soon as we can,” Sivulskiy said.

“All legal avenues inside Russia have been exhausted.”

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Sivulskiy said the Jehovah’s Witnesses strongly disagreed with the court’s ruling against it, adding “religious freedom in Russia is over.

“There were no real facts of any extremism on part of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s all about bad literature and intolerance. Now anyone who studies the Bible can be jailed,” he said, quoted by Newsweek magazine.

The ruling means that the group’s headquarters near St Petersburg and 395 local chapters will close.

It will be required to hand over all its properties, known as Kingdom Halls, to the Russian government.

The group says it has 175,000 followers in Russia.

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An estimated eight million people worldwide are part of the Christian-based movement, best known for going door-to-door preaching.

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