www.ebti.net/OLUSTOPNEWS__3874/2001-02-06t164157z_01_l0 -
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Published on: 11/18/2000
Last Visited: 3/4/2001
Witnesses' spokesman Paul Gillies said the battleground for the latest hearing would be a 14-page prosecution expert report covering linguistics and the meaning of passages from the Bible.
The prosecutor is trying to show how the Bible should be interpreted but I think that is not a matter for the general prosecutor's office , commented Vasily Kalin , who chairs the Jehovah's Witnesses' management committee in Russia.
Kalin said 361 Jehovah's Witnesses' groups had already registered in Russia , making Moscow's refusal an anomaly : I think this is a first attempt by our opponents , the opponents of freedom and democracy in Russia , who want to have us closed down in Moscow and then at the federal level..
As well as restricting the activities of mainstream churches , the 1997 religion law has placed other groups in legal limbo , including the Salvation Army which is also battling to renew its registration in Moscow.