Harvest Church liquidated in St. Petersburg, Russia
Friday, March 14, 2014 at 03:34PM 
The decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of March 5, 2014 on the Dissolution of a Local Religious Organization, the Harvest Church of Christians of Evangelical Pentecostals [(ECC(n)], for not possessing a license for educational activities will be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
The decision will be ready to the full extent in approximately 2-3 weeks. Now we have only the end result – dissolution.
On November 14, 2013, the St. Petersburg City Court ruled on the dissolution of a local religious organization, the Harvest Church of Christians of Evangelical Pentecostals, numbering about two hundred parishioners. The court's decision was appealed to the Judicial Board on Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. However, on March 5, 2014 the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, and the decision to dissolve the church remained unchanged. The interests of the church were represented by attorneys Anatoly Pchelintsev and Sergei Chugunov of the Slavic Legal Center.
The St. Petersburg City Court and the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the Church carries out educational activities without possessing a license for this, and carries out general educational services that are not part of the charter of the church.
Church community leaders and human rights activists do not agree with the ruling and argue that the church did not carry out educational activities; rather, they only provided space for activities with children who were enrolled in "external studies."
According to the attorneys, the implementation by the church of educational activities without a license and activities not provided for in the church charter was not established as a fact by the court proceedings. The courts misinterpreted the substantive law, they gave their own interpretation of the concept of educational activities, which does not meet the definition of education contained in the Education Act.
"I am deeply disappointed by this ruling of the Supreme Court," said honorable lawyer of Russia, senior partner of the Law Offices of the Slavic Legal Center, Anatoly Pchelintsev, "In my opinion, it is unjust. The ruling of the St. Petersburg Court, and then by the Supreme Court are disproportionate to the act committed. There's an entire arsenal of measures in the prosecution's response that could have been used in this situation. For example, the prosecutor could have issued a warning or caution, initiated administrative proceedings or compelled the religious organization to restore the violated rights of the affected persons, given the existence of any. But for unknown reasons, the prosecution did not take these measures, rather, they immediately demanded the dissolution of a congregation that had not committed any serious offenses.”
“It is very unfortunate, but we again must appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. I am certain that the ruling of that court will be in favor of the church, although in Europe, they will again perceive us as a primitive society that is incapable of sorting out the basic issues. In any case, we're going to stand up for the church."
Reader Comments (1)
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