Article source: Forum 18, By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service

Four lawyers defending Jehovah’s Witnesses have been deported since March, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The deportations of the two American and two Canadian lawyers seriously hinder the Witnesses’ attempts to defend themselves in seven local court cases seeking to ban their literature as extremist.

The deportations of four lawyers since March strike at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ already pressed defence against attempts to ban their literature as extremist, one of those deported, Mario Moreno, has told Forum 18 News Service. The lawyers – two Americans and two Canadians – were defending in four out of seven simultaneous local extremism cases against Jehovah’s Witnesses. A recent police detention allegedly involving torture and a raid on a Sunday service – after which one worshipper had a miscarriage and another was sent to a children’s shelter – suggest the law enforcement agencies continue to view Jehovah’s Witnesses as religious extremists even without a ban.

Total ban

The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the latest moves to be part of a new harassment campaign against them. “As events develop, it becomes more and more apparent that their [the law enforcement agencies'] ultimate aim is (..) to achieve a total ban on the activity of this religion by finding a pretext for a criminal prosecution,” a special April report by the organisation maintains. In February, an unprecedented nationwide sweep on Jehovah’s Witness communities - resulting in at least 500 check-ups - was ordered by the General Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Russia’s Human Rights Ombudsman has written to General Public Prosecutor Yuri Chaika criticising his Office’s instructions as forming “a deliberately negative attitude towards the religious organisation of Jehovah’s Witnesses” and encouraging inspectors “to go on a deliberate hunt aimed at finding grounds to repress or ban their activity.” Jehovah’s Witnesses operate lawfully in Russia, adds Vladimir Lukin in his 16 April letter.

Deportations

Due to continue his defence of local Jehovah’s Witnesses in a religious extremism case in Krasnodar, US citizen Mario Moreno was recently turned back from St Petersburg airport, he told Forum 18 from New York on 15 July: “Because of my appearance in court is all that I can think of – they never tell you why.” Originally valid until March 2010 and viewed by Forum 18, his multi-entry Russian business visa was stamped “annulled” by a Leningrad [St Petersburg] regional border guard on 30 June.

James Andrik, Moreno’s colleague at the Office of General Counsel for Jehovah’s Witnesses and also a US citizen, was issued a deportation order by Salsk Municipal Court (Rostov-on-Don Region) on 14 May, seen by Forum 18. He was arrested as he entered the same courthouse on 7 May, when he was due to present local Jehovah’s Witnesses’ defence in an ongoing religious extremism case, Moreno told Forum 18. Instead, Andrik was charged with practising law without being licensed locally and being illegally employed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ St Petersburg headquarters. As he left Russia before his deportation was ordered, no deportation stamp was placed in his passport.

A 10 June ruling by Rostov-on-Don Regional Court, viewed by Forum 18, reversed Andrik’s deportation order. It agreed that – like the other deportees – he had appeared in the Salsk case not as a lawyer, but as an appointed representative pursuant to a power of attorney, and an unpaid volunteer. Armed with a copy of this decision, Andrik attempted to return to Russia on 2 July, but was detained for 24 hours at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport before being turned back to Brussels, Moreno told Forum 18: “He was never given any official reason.”

An “Act of Return” bearing a 3 July Domodedovo border control stamp, seen by Forum 18, states that Andrik “does not have grounds to enter the Russian Federation” under Article 27 of the 1996 federal law on entry to and exit from Russia. With respect to those already holding a Russian visa, this provision bars foreign citizens who pose a threat to state security, were recently deported from or committed a serious crime in Russia from entering the country.

Moreno and Andrik’s two Canadian colleagues, John Burns and Shane Brady, were deported on 5 April by decisions of Kirov District Court in Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia Republic). Burns had been defending in a religious extremism case against local Jehovah’s Witnesses, which Brady was observing after defending in an analogous case in Samara, Moreno told Forum 18. On their way to Vladikavkaz airport on 4 April, the two were arrested by police, FSB security service and immigration officials as soon as they stopped to use the bathroom at the house of relatives of a friend who lives less than 100 metres from the main road, he continued. The pair were charged with entering an area out of bounds to foreign citizens – as the 5 May Republic Supreme Court rulings upholding the original deportation orders, seen by Forum 18, note. The lawyers were permitted to leave Russia unescorted.

Burns and Brady dispute the charges. According to Moreno, they argue that the Russian authorities did not inform the Canadian Embassy about the restricted area, that they were not given an opportunity to defend their actions (”Burns didn’t even get a chance to open his mouth”), and that the punishment of deportation was out of proportion with the alleged offense.

New religious extremism cases

Seven local courts are now seeking to ban Jehovah’s Witness literature as extremist, in Gorno-Altaisk (Altai Republic), Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Salsk, Samara, Vladikavkaz and Yekaterinburg. In the two newest cases, Krasnodar and Samara, hearings began in April. An eighth case sought to dissolve the Tolyatti (Samara Region) local Jehovah’s Witness religious organisation for promoting conscientious objection and breaking up families, rather than religious extremism, according to 27 February and 2 April suits issued by Samara Regional Public Prosecutor’s Office. While Samara Regional Court ruled in favour of the Tolyatti Jehovah’s Witnesses on 29 May, an appeal is pending.

Under the 2002 Extremism Law, even a low-level court may rule literature extremist. It is then automatically added to the Federal List of Extremist Materials and banned throughout Russia. The List’s 401 titles as of 23 July typically suggest extreme nationalist or anti-Semitic content. Most theological entries - the inclusion of which is also disputed - are Islamic.