The Jehovah's Witnesses said today that it would
appeal a ban on its activities in Russia at the
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
saying it had exhausted all other legal channels.
It's coming a day after Russia's Supreme Court
rejected the religious group's appeal and upheld
an April ruling which declared the organization
"extremist" and ordered it to disband in Russia.
"We plan to appeal this at the European Court of
Human Rights as soon as we can," Yaroslav
Sivulskiy, a member of the European Association
of Jehovah's Christian Witnesses, said by phone.
"All legal avenues inside Russia have been
exhausted."
Sivulskiy said the Jehovah's Witnesses strongly
disagreed with the court's ruling against it, but
had no option but to comply.
Religious life in Russia is dominated by the
Orthodox Church, which exerts considerable
political influence and enjoys the support of
President Vladimir Putin. Some Orthodox
scholars view Jehovah's Witnesses as a
'totalitarian sect'.
Prior to the ban, Russian authorities put several
of the group's publications on a list of banned
extremist literature and prosecutors have long
cast it as an organization that destroys families,
fosters hatred and threatens lives.
The group, a United States-based Christian
denomination known for its door-to-door
preaching and rejection of military service and
blood transfusions, says this description is false.
It says it has 175,000 followers in Russia.
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