c. 1998 Religion News Service

MOSCOW _ A civil trial pitting the Jehovah’s Witnesses against a municipal prosecutor and anti-cult activists is set to resume here Tuesday (Nov. 17) in what could be a major test of Russia’s new law on religion.”It is a very serious human rights question,”said Sergei Vasilyev, a Jehovah’s Witness administrator, speaking in his central Moscow office.”Even if the court forbids us from preaching, of course, we will still do it. That is what is written in the Bible. It doesn’t matter if it is forbidden or not.” The trial, which has attracted only modest attention from local media, is, however, being watched closely by Russia’s 250,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of other minority faiths in this overwhelmingly Christian Orthodox country.

In their complaint, prosecutors argue that the Jehovah’s Witnesses instigate”religious enmity”by claiming to be the only true religion, that they endanger members’ lives through a prohibition on blood transfusions, and”break down families”by placing unreasonable demands on adherents.

The legal arguments are based on the vaguely written Article 14 of Russia’s law on religion, adopted 14 months ago over the objections of Western governments, the Vatican and religious freedom advocates.

Should the prosecutors prevail in revoking the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ registration as an official religious group in Moscow, a liberal city of 10 million people, other, less progressive authorities in Russia’s 89 regions might follow suit. With 10,000 believers in Moscow, the stakes in the capital city alone are high enough, said Albert Polanski, a U.S. citizen dispatched to Moscow from the Jehovah’s Witnesses Brooklyn, N.Y., headquarters.”If the court rules against us, all of a sudden our people in Moscow will not be able to rent space for meeting,”said Polanski, who is joined in Moscow by John Burns, a Canadian Jehovah’s Witness lawyer specializing in such cases.”They will not be able to distribute literature. All they will be able to do is to pray.” Such prohibitions are necessary, prosecutors argue, to thwart a sect which forces members to reject their kin, to ignore public and personal holidays and to refuse military service. A list of witnesses for the prosecution include parents of children who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, psychiatrists and Alexander Dvorkin, a Russian Orthodox layman and U.S. citizen who specializes in researching and writing about non-traditional religious movements in Russia.

Dvorkin declined to be interviewed before his anticipated court appearance but in court papers argued the Witnesses are a”totalitarian sect”and said”psychological pressure on those who have left the sect has driven many victims to suicide.” Dvorkin heads an anti-cult organization affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, leading to the perception that the politically powerful 80-million member faith is orchestrating the legal attack on the Witnesses.

In addition, an Orthodox priest, the Rev. Oleg Stenyayev, head of the Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Non-Traditional Religions, has filed court papers calling the Jehovah’s Witnesses harmful to the health of Russian citizens.

Polanski and Vasiliev both accused the Orthodox Church with playing a strong role in pushing forward the court case. Church officials, however, deny the charge.

The Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, secretary for church and society in the church’s department of external church relations, said the question of whether the Jehovah’s Witnesses are harmful to citizens’ health is for the courts to decide.

He said while individual Orthodox groups and members might take action against the Witnesses, the church hierarchy is not doing so.”Of course, it is the business of the state,”Chaplin said.”It is quite understandable, though, that some law enforcement bodies are taking an interest in new religions accused by parents of members of being destructive.” On a different plane, Chaplin said his church regarded the Witnesses as quite dangerous.”We believe the people joining them are losing their eternal life, their salvation.” The rhetoric on both sides of the issue of the Witnesses’ legitimate place in Russian society has grown steadily heated. Vasiliyev said the trial is part of an increasingly intolerant atmosphere in Russia following the country’s economic collapse in August and ongoing impoverishment.”As a few psychiatrists and sociologists have noted, there is a mood of finding an enemy, of witchhunting. Lately, the shape of the enemy has been taking shape,”said Vasilyev.”Since the Orthodox are the majority, then the sects are to blame … It is a difficult time for the trial to be taking place.” Aside from the outcome of next week’s trial, another key test of the Witnesses’ future status in Russia will be the fate of the group’s recently submitted application for registration as a religious organization with the Russian Ministry of Justice.

To date 43 different faiths have won this status under Russia’s new religion law. One of them, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, or Hare Krishnas, was granted this all-Russian status last month.

Like the Witnesses, the 100,000-member Hare Krishnas also engage in high-profile proselytizing, has been termed a”totalitarian sect”and”destructive cult”by Dvorkin’s Orthodox group.

Sergei Zuyev, chairman of the executive committee of ISKCON in Russia, said he was pleased and not surprised by the registration on a federal level, but is worried about winning registration for the 122 Hare Krishna communities scattered across Russia.”It will be more difficult, without a doubt,”said Zuyev, who spent two-and-a-half years in Soviet prisons in the early 1980s for his beliefs.”They just don’t understand who we are,”he said.

DEA END BROWN