AZERBAIJAN: Nine Month Jail Term For Conscientious Objector. Jehovah’s Witness Farid Mammedov’s appeal against a nine month jail term for refusing compulsory military service on religious grounds has failed, Forum 18 News Service has learned. Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 that the appeal hearing was short and “completely ignored” the country’s international human rights obligations. [...]

Public access to religious Web site blocked in eastern Russia KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, Russia—One of the largest Internet service providers in eastern Russia, Technodesign, was compelled by court order to block access to several popular Web sites, including http://www.watchtower.org, the official Web site of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The ruling was made by the Tsentralniy District Court of Komsomolsk-on-Amur [...]

Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses Outdoor activity harassed, banned and violently attacked . Outdoor public religious activity by Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hare Krishna devotees and Protestants has resulted in harassment by the police, repeated bans, and in one case a refusal to defend a Protestant meeting against violent attack involving stun grenades, Forum 18 News Service notes. [...]

By Alexander Verkhovsky, SOVA Center for Information and Analysis The conviction of art curators Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev is the most high-profile symptom of the problems flowing from Russian anti-extremism legislation, notes Alexander Verkhovsky, Director of the Moscow-based SOVA Center for Information and Analysis http://www.sova-center.ru, in a commentary for Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org. [...]

Jehovah’s Witnesses waiting for Russian government compliance Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/294761 By Kevin Jess.Moscow – It has been over one month since the European Court of Human Rights found in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses who filed a complaint against the Russian government in 2001. Are there signs that Russia will comply with the ruling? On June 10, [...]

Strasbourg court declares illegal dissolving of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow The European Court of Human Rights 17:04 10/06/2010 © AFP/ Olivier Morin Related News Jehovah’s Witnesses accused of extremism in Siberia Moscow officials to evict Jehovah’s Witnesses from Moscow estate Russian Supreme Court bans regional Jehovah’s Witnesses branch Jehovah’s Witnesses plans for stadium service in [...]

Russia is returning to the methods of Stalin in 1951, when they were suppressed and many of them deported. All the victims were later rehabilitated. Investigations and searches from house to house, seizing religious material “extremist” allegations. A Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom hall in Budennovsk set on fire. In recent days, groups of police officers have [...]