{"id":1412156,"date":"2022-03-31T08:02:14","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T12:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1412156"},"modified":"2022-03-31T08:02:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T12:02:28","slug":"russias-jehovahs-witnesses-caught-up-in-extremist-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russias-jehovahs-witnesses-caught-up-in-extremist-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses caught up in \u201cextremist\u201d law"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frussias-jehovahs-witnesses-caught-up-in-extremist-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1412156&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2022-03-31T110701Z_1_LYNXNPEI2U0KW_RTROPTP_0_UKRAINE-CRISIS-RUSSIA-REPRESSION_1.jpg\" alt=\"Handout photograph of Russian Jehovah&#039;s Witness Zhukov\" \/><br \/>An undated handout photograph of Russian Jehovah&#8217;s Witness Timofey Zhukov. Handout via REUTERS<\/div>\n<p>March 31, 2022<\/p>\n<p>LONDON (Reuters) \u2013     In the early morning of Feb. 15, 2019, armed police and intelligence agents burst into Timofey Zhukov\u2019s home in Surgut, an oil town in western Siberia. They knocked him to the floor, then began searching his belongings, he said. <\/p>\n<p>It was one of at least 20 raids across Surgut that day, Zhukov told Reuters. He said all of those targeted were Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, an organisation that had been banned in Russia two years earlier after Russia\u2019s Supreme Court ruled it extremist. Russian authorities argued the organisation promotes its beliefs as superior to other faiths. <\/p>\n<p>Zhukov and his fellow believers were detained for questioning and accused of \u201ccontinuing the activities of an extremist organisation,\u201d a crime that could lead to imprisonment. Russian authorities didn\u2019t respond to questions from Reuters about the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Zhukov, who trained as a lawyer, told Reuters he and the others have done nothing unlawful. The Surgut branch of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses was liquidated after the ban came into force, Zhukov said, \u201cbut we continue to believe, regardless of whether there is a legal entity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jarrod Lopes, a spokesperson for Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, told Reuters, \u201cIf Russia\u2019s skewed view of extremism was imposed on everyone, then just about every believer and non-believer would be banned in Russia, not just Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses say they are politically neutral. They don\u2019t lobby or vote for political candidates or run for office. They don\u2019t sing national anthems or salute the flag of any nation because they view it as an act of worship. They also reject military service \u2013 a choice that has led to the imprisonment of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses members in several countries.<\/p>\n<p>Religious life in Russia is dominated by the Orthodox Church, which is championed by President Vladimir Putin. Some Orthodox scholars view Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses as a \u201ctotalitarian sect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zhukov\u2019s case is still working its way through the courts. But his name already appears on the register of \u201cterrorists and extremists\u201d and he can\u2019t travel outside the city without permission. He has only restricted access to his bank account. If he wants to withdraw more than 10,000 roubles ($120) in a single month he has to explain the reasons: \u201cI need to pay for the apartment, for kindergarten, for school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the past three years, Zhukov said, police and investigators threatened him with jail and he was forcibly admitted to a hospital in Yekaterinburg, 1,000 km away, to undergo a psychiatric examination. He said he spent 14 days there alongside patients who included violent criminals. \u201cI passed all the tests, some involving devices on my head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The list of \u201cterrorists and extremists\u201d has grown steadily. At the end of 2021, there were more than 12,200 individuals and groups on the register, up 13% from about a year earlier. Russia doesn\u2019t publish the dates on which names are added, but Reuters compared the current list with previous versions saved on archive.org, which stores web pages.<\/p>\n<p>Violent extremists such as neo-Nazi groups and Islamic State appear on the list. At least 400 local Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses groups are currently designated as extremist or terrorist, according to a Reuters analysis of the Russian list.<\/p>\n<p>In January, a 56-year-old female Jehovah\u2019s Witness was sentenced to six years in a penal colony for extremism. The following month, a 64-year-old man was handed a six-year sentence on the same charge. Both had insisted their innocence. Zhukov too insists that his religious beliefs do not contravene any law. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a lawyer, I can very easily distinguish between a religious association and a legal entity,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t explain why some lawyers and judges can\u2019t see the difference. And what threat do we pose?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe preach, we tell people about the kingdom of God from the Bible.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>(reporting by Lena Masri; editing by Janet McBride)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An undated handout photograph of Russian Jehovah&#8217;s Witness Timofey Zhukov. Handout via REUTERS March 31, 2022 LONDON (Reuters) \u2013 In the early morning of Feb. 15, 2019, armed police and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1412156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}