Scientologists bring to the presidential level. Vladimir Putin asked to defend their religious beliefs
As it became known””, group of human rights activists led by Lyudmila Alekseeva sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to respond to the arrest of the leaders of the Church of Scientology in St. Petersburg. They are accused of illegal business activities and the organization of extremist community. The authors of the letter called the prosecution a violation of the constitutional rights of citizens “to choose and propagate religious beliefs and to act in accordance with them.” Lyudmila Alexeyeva in an interview with “Kommersant” has compared the situation with the persecution of believers in the USSR. In turn, religious scholars point out that in several Western countries to the Scientologists “have a claim from a financial point of view,” but in Russia their activity is recognised by extremist.
The appeal of human rights groups placed in foster Vladimir Putin. The authors reported that “in St.-Petersburg openly flouted the Constitution guaranteed freedom to choose and propagate religious beliefs and to act in accordance with them.” We are talking about the arrest of five leaders of the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg, who are accused of illegal business activities and extremism. “The actions for which these individuals ended up in jail a day are committed across all communities of Scientologists, more than 160 countries around the world, and nowhere is this practice not considered a criminal offence, — is spoken in circulation.— These events can significantly damage the reputation of our country, which seems to be especially dangerous on the eve of the forthcoming campaign for elections of the President of the Russian Federation to 2018”.
Recall, created by writer Ron Hubbard, Scientology has appeared in Russia in the early 1990s. His followers failed to register the Church of Scientology of Moscow as a religious organization, but it was an isolated incident. “In other regions they do not want to register in this status, so Scientologists carry out their activities as foundations or NGOs,” — said the Director of the analytical center “Sova” Alexander Verkhovsky.
In 2014, the ECHR recognized the refusals to register the Russian community of Scientologists in violation of the Convention on the protection of human rights. But a year later the Moscow city court under the claim of Ministry of justice liquidated the Church of Scientology of Moscow, saying that its Charter contradicts the law on religious associations.
Many religious scholars criticized the examination before the court, but the Supreme court has left this decision without changes.
In April 2016, the FSB initiated a criminal case against the leaders of the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg (not registered as a religious organization).
The investigation considered that the Scientologists in 2013-2016 was engaged in illegal business, received income in the amount of 280 million rubles Later in case there were two more serious articles of the criminal code: 282 (inciting hatred or enmity) and 282.1 (organization of an extremist community).
The consequence detained the Executive Director of the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg Galina Shurinova, head of the security service Anastasia Terentyeva and her Deputy Constance Esaulkov, chief accountant Sahib Aliyev and spiritual leader of Ivan Muzickog. They are all from June are in jail, with the exception of Constance Esaulkova — the court sent her under house arrest for health reasons. The lawyer Evgeny Tonkov, representing the interests of Ivan Mareckova, said “Kommersant” that the investigation has still not clarified the nature of the charges.
“I’m not a very religious person, but I understand that for believers their faith is as important as my beliefs, — said “Kommersant” the head of the Moscow Helsinki group Lyudmila Alekseeva.— In Soviet times, I defended the right of people to believe, but it has to deal with now.”
In this case, Ms. Alexeyev opined that the persecution of Scientologists due to the fact that “the Moscow Patriarchate protects the spiritual space”.
“A special relationship to Scientology is based on the fact that this is a completely new religious movement. Even the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and Mormons grew out of Protestantism, and this doctrine is rather based on fantasy,” — said the head of the Center for the study of problems of religion and society Institute of Europe RAS Roman Lunkin. He recalled that in the years 1955-1965 in the United States held a series of processes against the leaders of Scientology on charges of tax evasion and concealment of financial statements. “After that, in many countries, the authorities are suspicious of the Church, especially the tax authorities, — said the expert.— But in countries where there are democratic norms, it is not prohibited, though not everywhere recognized religious organization.”
According to experts, in Russia want to ban the actual teachings and writings of Hubbard as extremist — “this has never been done because in these books, of course, there is no extremism.”
Alexander Black; Dmitry Marakulin, St. Petersburg