A Russian court has banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ translation of the Bible following a drawn-out legal battle, another blow to followers of the pacifist Christian sect who have been branded “extremists” and driven to practicing their faith underground, as in Soviet times. Radio Freedom Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent organization in Russia and 395 regional branches were formally placed on the Justice Ministry’s list of “extremist” groups on August 17, a procedural move following the Supreme Court’s decision to ban the group’s activities and seize its property earlier this year.
In a separate case on August 17, a court in the northwestern border town of Vyborg banned the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures, the group’s version of the Bible. Several other publications by the Jehovah’s Witnesses — including a brochure, The Bible — What Is Its Message? — were also labeled extremist.
The case against the religious group’s Bible dates to July 2015, when a shipment of the books from Finland was stopped at the border and impounded by customs officials on suspicion of extremism.
The ban on the Bible used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses has not come into legal force, as the group intends to challenge the ruling in a regional court.
“Soon it will be illegal not only to gather [to worship], but also to read,” said Yaroslav Sivulsky, a member of the European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses, adding that the court proceedings felt like “theater.”
“Whatever our lawyers said, it was as if the ruling was already known,” he said.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses international headquarters in New York decried the ruling. “Just how far will Russia’s resistance to religious freedom go? We certainly hope that respect for sacred texts will prevail when we pursue this case on appeal,” said spokesman David Semonian in comments circulated by the group’s press service.
The statement said the court ruling contradicts legislation signed by President Vladimir Putin in 2015 stipulating that sacred texts such as the Bible and Koran cannot be labeled extremist.
