In Sochi, militia refuses to investigate attack on building of Jehovah's Witnesses

Employees of the Tsentralny ROVD of Sochi returned the application lodged by the Sochi community of Jehovah's Witnesses on the fact of an attack on the hall for religious assemblies. They explained their refusal to open a case by the absence of data about material damage.

"We have no official documents on refusal to initiate a criminal case. Apparently, the militia wants to fix the incident as mere hooliganism; if so, there're indeed no grounds for criminal prosecution. But, in our opinion, it should be considered as a crime committed on religious motives," Grigory Martynov from the press service of the administrative centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Let us remind that at night on January 9 in Sochi a group of youngsters showered stones on the hall for religious assemblies, named the Kingdom Hall. The attackers broke out a part of the fence, damaged the protection enclosure of the territory and threatened to apply physical violence to the community members who were on duty in the building.

This was the first case of an attack on the hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Sochi.

According to Nikolai Shlomin, who was on duty in the building, the attackers were dressed in black clothes with skulls drawn on them. In the course of the attack they shouted: "We hate Jehovah's Witnesses! My name is Antichrist! My sign is 666!"

"Militiamen were quick in the place after our call. The caught two attackers and took them to the station. Initially, militiamen willingly cooperated with us in clearing out all the circumstances of the incident," said Grigory Martynov.

However, later militiamen told us that the detainees were let off after a prophylactic talk.

Senior Expert Andrei Kovalenko, an employee of the press centre of the UVD (Interior Department) of the city of Sochi, refused to give any official information about the incident to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and recommended to send a letter of enquiry to the UVD.

Let us note here that several days before the attack on the hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Sochi a similar incident had happened in the city of Volzhsk, Volgograd Region.

On the New Year night, in Volzhsk arsons were committed in the premises of two religious organizations. The culprits used Molotov cocktails. Thanks to prompt actions of the workers of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE), serious consequences were avoided, and fires - timely extinguished. Later, the GUVD of the Volgograd Region area reported detention of a group of young men suspected of the arsons.

These events are taking place at the background of the campaign of suing Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

On February 26-28, Jehovah's Witnesses held a campaign over the whole territory of the country disseminating a booklet telling about the pressure on the members of this religious organization.

On September 11, 2009, the judge of the Rostov Regional Court passed a decision recognizing the local community to be an extremist one and forbidding its activity in the city of Taganrog, and in the Neklinovskiy and Matveev-Kurgan Districts of the Rostov Region. The Court also included 34 publications of Jehovah's Witnesses into the federal list of extremist materials. On December 8, 2009, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejected the complaint of the Taganrog community against the decision of the Rostov Regional Court.

This decision became a precedent for further persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses. Thus, on January 27, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Altai recognized 18 publications of this religious organization to be extremist materials.

Jehovah's Witnesses are challenging the verdict of the Rostov Court at the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR).

Nevertheless, on March 1 in Taganrog, court marshals closed and sealed up the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, while the public prosecutor insists on confiscation of property judicial police officers have.