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Jehovah's Witnesses Win Vital Court Case (St. Petersburg Times) 28 Feb 2001. A Moscow court on Friday threw out a prosecutor's effort to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in the capital, a decision hailed as a strong move for religious tolerance. Applause and tears broke out among the crowd of about 50 people listening to the reading of the decision, which also called for the prosecutor's office to pay $650 to experts called in the case. The Moscow city prosecutor's office had been trying to outlaw the Moscow branch of the US-based church using a provision in Russian law that allows courts to ban religious groups found guilty of inciting hatred or intolerant behavior. The trial began in September 1998 but was recessed six months later to let an expert panel examine the group's publications for evidence backing the prosecutor's claim that the group destroyed families, fostered hatred and threatened lives. But on Friday, the city's Golovinsky district court threw out the case and ordered five experts to pay for their two years of work examining the texts. "We have a clear statement by the court that the courtroom is not a place for theological debate," said John Burns, an attorney for the Jehovah's Witnesses. "It shows we have hope for an independent judiciary in Moscow because this court has come down with a very strong decision." The Jehovah's Witnesses have alleged that Russia's religion law has been used to restrict churches other than Russia's biggest and most well-established faiths. The law enshrines Orthodox Christianity as the country's predominant religion and pledges respect for Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, but places restrictions on other groups.
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