MOSCOW, RUSSIA -- A Moscow court has thrown out a prosecutor's effort to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in the capital. The decision was hailed by supporters as a strong move for religious tolerance.
The crowd of about 50 people applauded and cried after listening to Friday's reading of the decision, which also called for the prosecutor's office to pay $650 to experts called in the case.
"We are crying tears of happiness," said one Jehovah's Witnesses member. "I lived through the period when we were banned. I did not want to repeat it."
The Moscow city prosecutor's office had been trying to outlaw the Moscow branch of the U.S.-based church, using a provision in Russian law that allows courts to ban religious groups found guilty of inciting hatred or intolerant behavior.
The trial began in September 1998 but was recessed six months later to let an expert panel examine the group's publications for evidence backing the prosecutor's claim that the group destroyed families, fostered hatred and threatened lives.
But on Friday, the city's Golovinsky district court threw out the case and ordered five experts paid for their two years of work examining the texts.