A Landmark Victory for the Brotherhood:

[Vido]

NEWS ALERT | European Court Issues Landmark Judgment Against Russia in Favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses

 

On June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) released a landmark judgment against Russia in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The ECHR declared that it was unlawful for Russia to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses. It ordered Russia to discontinue all pending criminal proceedings against Jehovah’s Witnesses, to release all those in prison, as well as to return all the confiscated properties or pay adequate compensation.

On the same day, the Court also issued a judgment against Lithuania for denying one of our brothers an exemption to military service.

[BibleSteve]

Sadly Russia will just ignore this judgement.

[Sheep]

Russia is no longer under the ECHR anyway. They likely opted out of it because of the judgment and needed a convenient excuse to evade it.

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Sheep
Changed link

[Sequoia]

8 hours ago, Sheep said:

Russia is no longer under the ECHR anyway. They likely opted out of it because of the judgment and needed a convenient excuse to evade it.

 

But perhaps since the ruling was made before they opted out of it it will still stand.  Also, it may prevent other countries allied to Russia from banning Jehovah's Witnesses and may make them think twice about it.  Both those who are under the ECHR and those who are not.  Also, this ruling exonerates internationally even in countries where we are not banned.  Perhaps this will show honest hearted people that we are not extremists and hopefully many people in Russia will realize this as well.  I noticed that the Moscow Times has already published an article on this ruling.

[Sequoia]

Oh I see that March 15th was the cut off point.  Well we'll see what happens.  

[-Chris-]

Yeah I was making cynical comments about Russia ignoring this and realized that this isn't for the KotN, this is for others to help recognize the injustices being inflicted upon our brothers and sisters.

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

The Strasbourg-based court ordered Moscow to release the 91 Jehovah’s Witnesses currently in Russian jails, pay 3.5 million euros ($3.7 million) in damages and either return seized property or pay 60 million euros ($64 million) in compensation.

But Russia seems unlikely to carry out the judgment, with lawmakers swiftly passing legislation Tuesday to end the ECHR’s jurisdiction. The bill, which must now be approved by Russia’s upper house of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin, sets March 16 as the cut-off date for recognized rulings.



https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/06/08/europes-top-rights-court-rules-against-russias-jehovahs-witnesses-ban-a77935

Old (Downunder) Tone

[Abigail]

Don't you think it is intriguing that Russia announced it was leaving the ECHR on 7 June ... the same day the judgement came down. Not that I am saying they are connected in Russia's mind ... but they may be in Jehovah's!!

[Parale]

17 minutes ago, Abigail said:

Don't you think it is intriguing that Russia announced it was leaving the ECHR on 7 June

 

Keep in mind that, as The Moscow Times highlighted in their article: "The Council of Europe, which oversees the court, suspended then expelled Russia in March following its invasion of Ukraine."

 

https://jwtalk.net/topic/52485-jws-wins/?do=findComment&comment=884374

 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Parale

[Abigail]

12 minutes ago, Parale said:

 

Keep in mind that, as The Moscow Times highlighted in their article: "The Council of Europe, which oversees the court, suspended then expelled Russia in March following its invasion of Ukraine."

 

https://jwtalk.net/topic/52485-jws-wins/?do=findComment&comment=884374

 

 

True but it was on 7 June that the Russian parliament formalised this by passing bills ...

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/7/russia-exits-european-court-of-human-rights-jurisdiction

Edited June 9, 2022 by Abigail

[shali]

Russia ignores whatever it wants to.  It passed a law in 2016 stating that it didn't have to abide by any of the ECHR rulings and that was years before they actually pulled out.  Nice to know thought that they highest court in that part of the country sided with Jehovah's people even though it won't make any difference.  Russia acts like it is a whole seperate planet from earth.

[Bluebell]

https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/russia/Russia-Withdraws-From-the-European-Court/

 

Therefore, all ECHR judgments from March 15, 2022, onward are no longer legally enforceable in Russia.

This includes the ECHR’s June 7 judgment declaring the nationwide ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses unlawful

and ordering Russia to stop criminally prosecuting them, to release all Witnesses currently detained,

and to return all confiscated properties or pay the applicants some 59 million euros ($63 million U.S.).

[shali]

I think we all knew that was coming, Russian never gets any favorable victories, so why stay a member?  Although they won't comply with what the court ordered (even though they were supposed to through September 2022) it's still a victory for Jehovah.  Russia should just declare itself a seperate planet or something, they don't get along well with others and when they don't like the rules imposed upon them, they just make their own and ignore everything else.

[Sheep]

4 hours ago, shali said:

I think we all knew that was coming, Russian never gets any favorable victories, so why stay a member?  Although they won't comply with what the court ordered (even though they were supposed to through September 2022) it's still a victory for Jehovah.  Russia should just declare itself a seperate planet or something, they don't get along well with others and when they don't like the rules imposed upon them, they just make their own and ignore everything else.

Agreed. They don't like the rules imposed on them, but they seem to love imposing their rules on others. I'd like to see them try to force their rules on Jehovah when he takes control.

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Sheep

[Tortuga]

49 minutes ago, Sheep said:

Agreed. They don't like the rules imposed on them, but they seem to love imposing their rules on others. I'd like to see them try to force their rules on Jehovah when he takes control.

 

[Qapla]