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Jehovah's Witnesses consider European court appeal after Russian Supreme Court upholds ban on sect

Stacks of booklets distributed by Alexander Kalistratov (L), the local leader of a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation, are seen during the court session in the Siberian town of Gorno-Altaysk, December 16, 2010. | Reuters/Alexandr Tyryshkin/Files

The Jehovah's Witnesses expressed its plans to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after the Russian Supreme Court upheld a ruling that banned the sect and declared it as an "extremist" organization.

"We plan to appeal this at the European Court of Human Rights as soon as we can. All legal avenues inside Russia have been exhausted," Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a member of the European Association of Jehovah's Christian Witnesses, told Reuters.

Sivulskiy said that the sect strongly disagreed with the court's ruling, but it had no option but to comply.

The latest court ruling would allow the Russian government to liquidate the 395 Jehovah's Witnesses congregations and seize the sect's properties.

David Semonian, a spokesman for the sect, issued a statement saying, "it's very concerning that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, powerful elements within Russia continue to frame our organization as extremist."

A European Union foreign policy spokeswoman had stated that the ban had already caused problems for the group.

"This ban has already resulted in cases of criminal prosecutions against Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as police raids on their prayer halls, arson attacks and other forms of harassment," the spokeswoman said in a statement.

"Jehovah's Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as by Russia's international commitments and international human rights standards," she added.

A survey conducted by the Levada Center last month indicated that 79 percent of the respondents support the government's ban on the sect.

Prior to the ban, the group's publications have been included in a list of banned extremist literature and the prosecutors have long cast it as an organization that destroys families, fosters hatred and threatens lives. However, the Jehovah's Witnesses, which is known for its door-to-door preaching and rejection of military service and blood transfusions, contends that the description is false.

Jehovah's Witnesses, which claims to have about 175,000 followers in Russia, was legally registered as a religious group in the country in 1991 and re-registered in 1999.

In 2009, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that declared 34 pieces of the group's literature as "extremist." That same year, the Jehovah's Witnesses was officially banned from the port city of Taganrog, after a local court ruled the organization guilty of inciting religious hatred by "propagating the exclusivity and supremacy" of their religion.

In 2015, 16 members of the sect were convicted of practicing extremism in Taganrog. Five of the convicted members were sentenced to more than five years' imprisonment, which was later suspended, while the others were punished with stiff fines.