HEAT TURNED UP AGAINST JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

UNCLAS MOSCOW 001205 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL KIRF SOCI RS SUBJECT: HEAT TURNED UP AGAINST JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES REF: MOSCOW 546 ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Despite recent written appeals by Russian Federation Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to General Prosecutor Yuriy Chayka, Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia are facing enhanced scrutiny as local police pursue charges of "extremism" directed at JW religious literature. JW Amcit attorney Jim Andrik departed Russia on May 9 after intense police harassment and charges of illegal business activity in Rostov. On May 7, a Jehovah's Witness in Voronezh Region claimed that police unlawfully detained him and a fellow colleague for burglary, then allegedly tortured him without cause. Several lawsuits continue throughout Russia against the Jehovah's Witnesses, which is now without the services of Andrik and two other Canadian attorneys who were deported from Russia in April 2009. Director of the Ombudsman's Office of Religious Affairs Mikhail Odintsov called these recent actions against JW "unfair and strange" and stated that he would bring it to Lukin's attention. End Summary. Jehovah's Witness Attorney Leaves Rostov After Harassment -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Amcit Associate General Counsel for the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) Jim Andrik fled Rostov Region on May 9 after being detained and charged in Salsk (Rostov Region) on May 8 for practicing law without a license. Five uniformed officers and three plain-clothes officers detained Andrik as he prepared to enter the Salsk City Court on May 8 for a final hearing on the "extremist" nature of JW literature. Officers escorted him to the local police station for questioning, only later charging him with violating Article 18.10 (Violating the Rules of Engagement and Use of Foreign Labor in the Russian Federation) of the Administrative and Criminal Code. Expecting to be released after just three hours (according to Russian legal requirement),officials decided to hold him on "false and ridiculous" charges, according to Andrik. After more than six hours at the police station, officials released him and set a court hearing for May 12. ¶3. (SBU) Andrik, who has represented JW in numerous legal proceedings in Russia for the past several years with a power of attorney, believed that local authorities were "grabbing at straws" in an attempt to force him out of the country. After consulting with his Russian attorney and his Russian JW colleagues, he decided to leave Russia before his scheduled May 12 court hearing, at which he assumed court officials would decide to deport him. Considering the airports in Rostov and other surrounding areas to be "too risky," he opted to take a ferry boat to Simferopol, Ukraine on May 9, and a flight from Kyiv to New York on May 11 to escape punishment. Andrik's departure came on the heels of the deportation of three Canadian citizens, including two attorneys, from Vladikavkaz in April 2009 for allegedly crossing into a restricted travel zone in the Caucasus. The Canadian JW representatives had traveled with their local driver to his home in the north Caucasus when police detained the three foreigners. ¶4. (SBU) On May 8, Andrik's JW colleagues learned that the Salsk City Court judge, against the local prosecutor's wishes, granted the JW motion to conduct a study of the organization's religious literature at a neutral institute in Moscow. Andrik suggested that the judge made the decision in JW's favor in "disgust" of the local police's harassment tactics. JW representatives hoped that the study, scheduled to take seven months, would offer an objective opinion of the confession's religious materials as opposed to those "orchestrated by local authorities," as they claim has been the case in a similar Gorno-Altaisk lawsuit. A junior attorney for JW replaced Andrik in the Salsk City Court case regarding the extremist nature of the organization's literature. Alleged Torture of Jehovah's Witnesses in Voronezh -------------- -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Jehovah's Witness attorneys Jim Andrik and Marc Hanssen told us on May 7 that law enforcement officials in the town of Ramon (Voronezh Region) arrested two members of the local JW chapter, Yuriy Panov and Nikolay Stinikov, under suspicion of burglary. According to Andrik, local Ramon residents had reported seeing the two JW members in the vicinity of several local homes that had been robbed recently. Police stopped the two men on the street, searched them for stolen goods, and then detained them for further questioning. After photographing and fingerprinting both suspects, police allegedly began to beat Panov without provocation, attempting to force a confession to several counts of burglary. When Panov refused, police handcuffed him and forced him to wear a gas mask, to which authorities cut off the oxygen supply so he could not breathe. The officers also allegedly threatened Panov with sexual assault and electrical shocks, should he not comply. Under duress, Panov admitted to committing the robberies. Within minutes, the authorities released both men, saying that they had been mistaken and that there would be no charges. Both Panov and Stinikov later immediately filed complaints with the Ramon District Prosecutor's Office, and Jehovah's Witness attorneys informed Ombudsman Lukin's office about the event. Lukin Questions Chayka about Anti-JW campaign -------------- ¶6. (SBU) On May 13, we expressed our strong concern over the recent harassment of JW to the Director of the Ombudsman's Office of Religious Affairs Mikhail Odintsov. He termed the prosecutorial and law enforcement activities against JW as "unfair, incorrect, and strange," requiring an additional message to Chayka. He also welcomed additional "evidence" on the individual complaints, stating that he would bring the matter to Lukin's attention. Jehovah's Witness representatives told us on May 7 that Ombudsman Lukin submitted a letter dated April 16 to General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Yuriy Chayka, expressing his concern about a Prosecutor-initiated investigative campaign against Russian JW chapters (reftel). Lukin suggested that Chayka's office appeared to be relying on the opinions of "traditional" Russian religions when making decisions about the non-traditional Jehovah's Witnesses, a thinly-masked suggestion of Russian Orthodox-government ties. Lukin mentioned the current array of legal activity against the JW, including lawsuits in Rostov Oblast and Altai Republic, which characterize JW literature as "extremist." Regarding criticism of JW for teaching its adherents to refuse military service, in his letter Lukin specifically pointed to article 59 of the Russian Constitution, which provides for alternate service for those who refuse to serve in the military. He also supported JW's right to refuse blood transfusions as protected by Russia's Fundamentals of Legislation for Health Protection. Comment -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Trend lines have not improved for the Jehovah's Witnesses, despite Lukin's efforts on their behalf and Embassy appeals to the head of Medvedev's Council on Promoting the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Ella Pamfilova. We have requested a meeting with Russian MFA to discuss JW problems, and will continue to actively engage Lukin's and Pamfilova's offices, the religious community, and human rights circles. RUBIN