On August 9, 2017, the Vyborg City Court (Leningrad Region) continues hearings on the claim of the transport prosecutor's office to recognize the Bible seized at customs from Jehovah's Witnesses as "extremist material."
This is a modern translation of the Bible from 2007, known as the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Earlier , customs blocked the import of 2,016 copies of this Bible into Russia. Later, Jehovah's Witnesses were also banned from importing batches of Bibles in the official translation of the Russian Orthodox Church (Synodal Edition) and the "Cognitive Bible" published by the Russian Bible Society.
On March 15, 2016, the Vyborg City Court began hearings on the ban on the New World Translation. The lawsuit of the prosecutor's office caused bewilderment among religious scholars and human rights activists, including members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights L. Alekseeva, A. Verkhovsky, V. Ryakhovsky.
Before filing the lawsuit, the prosecutor's office enlisted the support of the "expert" Natalia Kryukova, known for the authorship of about 50 "scientific" conclusions against Jehovah's Witnesses. Substituting the objects of study, the "expert" stated that this translation of the Bible is "extremist" only because it is used by Jehovah's Witnesses!
However, the Vyborg City Court went further: in violation of the logic of legal proceedings, violating a number of provisions of the legislation of the Russian Federation, Judge Roman Petrov sent the Bible for forensic examination by the same N. Kryukova! Despite the fact that the current legislation prohibits the appointment of an examination in an institution whose head has already conducted research on this subject. The court's actions are most surprising in light of the fact that the Bible simply cannot be subjected to examination for extremism, since the President of the Russian Federation made a special amendment to the law on extremism that protects sacred texts, including the Bible, from anti-extremist legislation.
In her new "expert opinion" of June 6, 2017, N. Kryukova expectedly came to the conclusion that there is extremism in this translation of the Bible! In support of her conclusions, she quotes at least 12 times (!): "God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and the nearby city of Gomorrah. All their wicked inhabitants perished."
The unjust inclusion of printed materials of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Federal List of Extremist Materials is the only reason for all accusations of extremism against the official representative offices of this religion, which led to their total ban in Russia.