MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Moscow court shut down the Russian capital's chapter of the Salvation Army Wednesday, to the dismay of the British-based church that runs soup kitchens for poor and elderly Muscovites.
The city charged that the church had failed to re-register on time or prove its continued existence, as required under a law on religious organizations.
A source at the church said the Salvation Army would appeal the decision.
"This is nonsense! The tax authorities in Moscow know we exist because they process the salaries of the Salvation Army," the source said.
Russian authorities in the past have accused the religious group, which uses military style uniforms and ranks, of being a paramilitary organization bent on toppling the government.
"The charges are ridiculous and false. We just want to be left alone to do our Christian ministry, and we want to do it properly under Russian law," Col. Kenneth Baille, commanding officer of the Salvation Army in Russia, said in July.
Judge Svetlana Grigoreva at Tagansky Region People's Court had postponed the hearing from Tuesday to Wednesday so she could contact tax authorities to find proof of the organization's activities.
But the Salvation Army source said the court did not inspect the documents before it ruled.
In a statement before the ruling, the church accused Moscow authorities of ignoring the Russian central government's decision to register the church nationwide in February 2001.
The Salvation Army has already appealed to Russia's Constitutional Court, Russia's Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights in relation to an earlier refusal to allow it to re-register.
The problems relate to Russia's 1997 law on freedom of conscience and religion, which forced faiths without long activity in Russia to undergo a complex registration process.
The law is supported by Russia's Orthodox Church, which says it is needed to keep out dangerous cults that flourished after the fall of Soviet Communism, but human rights groups say it interferes with religious freedom.