VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMO #1205/01 1331159
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 131159Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3230
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

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