Bulgarian Jehovah Witnesses: Nationalists Tried to Kill Us

Sofia, Bulgaria - The stones that nationalists threw at Jehovah Witnesses last Sunday were so huge the could have killed a person, representatives of the sect stated Thursday on a press conference.

The Jehovah Witnesses brought one of the stones and pointed out there was another one which they did not take with them, because it was too big.

Last Sunday, five followers of the Jehovah Witnesses were injured in a clash provoked by a rally against their sect, organized by VMRO. The incident happened in the Black Sea city of Burgas, in front of the Jehovah Witnesses House of Prayer.

The attackers were football hooligans, VMRO explained afterwards, stating that the party intended to stage a peaceful protest. However, it warned that accidents like this may follow if the Jehovah Witnesses are not banned.

Hrtisto Nikolov, Atanas Atanasov and Javier Garcia from the Jehovah Witnesses stated on Thursday that their sect is sponsored by voluntary donations, answering VMRO representatives, who earlier the same day speculated that it may be financed in illegal ways.

The Jehovah Witnesses explained that they gathered last Sunday to commemorate Jesus's death, because Jesus said in the Bible that it must be marked in a specific way. They added they do not celebrate his resurrection.

Representatives of VMRO were present at the press conference, but no accidents occurred. However, the nationalists have already threatened to stage a new protest which will take place on May 01 in Sofia's Lyulin district, where a Jehovah Witnesses' prayer house is situated.