Banning of Publications

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation issued a ruling on the website of Jehovah's Witnesses

St. Petersburg

The complaint was filed by the Watch Tower Society. The Commission on Human Rights of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation submitted to the Court an opinion that the recognition of the site as "extremist" violated the right of believers to judicial protection, since the case was considered without the owner of the site.

The court refused to consider the complaint without eliminating the legal uncertainty, as a result of which sites can be recognized as extremist without granting their owners the right to effective legal protection. There is also no proper assessment of the fact that the site is recognized as "extremist" in the absence of materials from the FSEM on it, but only because such materials may appear on it!