Moscow, Russia - The European Court of Human Rights yesterday issued its Chamber judgment in the case of Kuznetsov and Others vs. Russia, Cristiannewswire.com website reports.
The Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 9 (freedom of religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights and a violation of Article 6 (right to a fair hearing) of the Convention.
A lease signed on February 16, 1999 allowed the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses to rent the auditorium of a vocational training college in Chelyabinsk, in order to hold religious meetings. The meeting held April 16, 2000 was disrupted by the chairwoman of the Regional Human Rights Commission, accompanied by two senior police officers, who called for the meeting to be stopped.
Kuznetsov who was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses at the meeting submitted that, given the intimidating behavior of the Commissioner and the police, he thought it best to comply. The following day the Jehovah’s Witnesses group was given notice of the termination of its lease agreement with the college “because of certain irregularities committed by the college administration at the time of its signing”.
The applicants unsuccessfully requested a criminal investigation into the actions of the Commissioner and the police officers. Their civil complaint with Sovietskiy District Court of Chelyabinsk was also dismissed on the ground that the applicants had failed to show a causal link between the Commissioner’s arrival and the premature termination of their meeting.
The European Court rejected the Government’s claim that the applicants lacked the appropriate documents for the religious meeting because the domestic law did not require any such documents. It likewise did not accept the Government’s claim that the Commissioner had come to the meeting to investigate a complaint about the unauthorized presence of children at a religious event, as that claim was not supported by any evidence.
The Court also found that the government’s action violated the applicants’ right to religious freedom under Article 9 and ordered Russia to pay over 90.000 Euros as a compensation to Jehovah’s Witnesses.