AP February 26, 1999
Cops Raid Moscow Scientology Center
By GREG MYRE
.c The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) -- Police seized boxes of documents from the Scientology movement
and questioned its leaders today, in the latest government action against
religious groups in Russia.
Tax police and other security services spent 16 hours confiscating materials
from the Scientologists' Moscow center on Thursday, and they returned today
to question the leaders, the group said.
Authorities said they were investigating possible tax evasion and other
financial irregularities.
Russian authorities have moved against a number of religious organizations
following the passage of a 1997 law that placed widespread restrictions on
"nontraditional" faiths.
The dominant Russian Orthodox Church strongly supports the law and often
speaks out against religious groups that have been arriving in Russia since
the Soviet breakup in 1991.
The Scientologists said the investigation against them was politically
motivated.
"Cruelty was in the air during this visit (by the tax police), which has
reminded us that Russia has not yet acquired the right of freedom -- freedom
to think and act in accordance with the convictions of conscience," Alexei
Danchenkov, a Scientologist spokesman, said in a statement.
Some 200 students a week attend classes at the Scientologists' center in
Moscow, said Danchenkov.
Human rights groups say the religious law is reminiscent of anti-religion
drives during the Soviet era, when the Communists decreed an official policy
of atheism and many religious groups had to operate underground.
Other current religious cases include:
In St. Petersburg, more than 40 teachers and children at a Christian school
have been holed up inside their building since Tuesday, under the eye of
police in combat fatigues outside. The city gave the Society of Open
Christianity a rent-free lease on the aging building in 1991, but are now
demanding it back. The group wants a new site for their school.
Moscow prosecutors are seeking to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses in an ongoing
trial. Prosecutors have accused the group of "aggressive proselytism" and
describe it as a cult that destroys families, fosters hatred and threatens
lives.
In the eastern city of Magadan, authorities have sought for months to close
the Word of Life Pentecostalist Church. A prosecutor has accused church
leaders of hypnotizing people, while tax police and security services have
conducted raids and interrogations. Earlier this month, 400 church members
applied for asylum in the United States.
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