Freedom of Conscience

HRWF, December 26, 2011

On October, 27 2011 Pervomaisky district court of Krasnodar banned the following material used by Falun Gong in Russia:

• Zhuan Falun book (author: Li Hongzhi, published by « Cameron » in Moscow in 2006, printed in the « Nauka » publishing house);
• the brochure « Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China » (authors: David Matas and David Kilgour, published in St.Petersburg, in 2007 in the publishing house OOO « Publishing Complex Deviz »);
• information leaflets « Falun Dafa Around the World » and « Global Human Rights Torch Relay

As proposed by the public prosecutor of Krasnodar region and approved by Pervomayskiy court of city of Krasnodar from 26 August 2008, the aforementioned printed materials were declared to be considered as extremist materials.

Russian followers of Falun Dafa learned about this decision only after the abovementioned materials were included in list of extremist materials on the website of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation at the end of December 2008.

At the request of the Moscow, St.-Petersburg, and Krasnodar Falun Dafa Centers of spiritual and physical perfection as well as Falun Dafa practitioners, Sinitsyn M. V and Alehina S.N., who proved they were directly concerned by this decision, the missed remedial term to appeal the decision of the Court was restored by a decision of the Pervomayskiy court of the city of Krasnodar on 4 March 2009.

After several other legal developments, the Krasnodar District court ruled on 5 November 2009 that a psychological, linguistic and theological expert should be appointed to examine the case. The result of the investigation was addressed to the Pervomayskiy court of Krasnodar in October, 2011 and the proceedings were resumed on 11 October 2011.

On 27 October 2011, the publications of Falun Gong were declared extremist and subject to confiscation.

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