MOSCOW (AP) - The Church of Scientology has won a ruling in a Moscow court preventing authorities from using a widely criticized religion law to stop the group from registering, church officials said Wednesday.
The ruling draws on a Constitutional Court decision this year over the same 1997 law in a case involving the Salvation Army, which also had been targeted for liquidation.
In a one-day trial Tuesday in a Moscow district court, judges used the Salvation Army verdict to argue that liquidating a religious organization that doesn't pose a threat to public order is a violation of freedom of religion, the church said.
Leisa Goodman, human rights director for the Church of Scientology, said by telephone from Los Angeles that the ruling "opens the door not only to scientology but to thousands of other religions."
The religion law, championed by the dominant Russian Orthodox Church, requires all religious groups to register with Russian authorities. Several groups, particularly foreign-based ones, have met with legal troubles since its passage and say it limits religious freedoms Russia that were won with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Church of Scientology said it has tried to register eight times since 1998, but was either ignored or met with refusals. In Russia, the church has 200,000 members and 73 centers.
Authorities have 10 days to appeal the ruling to a higher court, Goodman said.