By RIA Novosti correspondent Galina Amelkina

MOSCOW, JUNE 27 /RIA NOVOSTI/ -- A law on liberty of conscience and religious associations, passed by the State Duma on June 23, is "false" and "does not correspond to the original version", deputy Galina Starovoitova told a news conference today.

She called on the Federation Council and the Russian President to turn down the document, saying that she would herself start an investigation into the "substitution".

According to her, "the law differs in concept from the draft adopted in first reading and from the text of the draft bill prepared last year by a working group, which included representatives of religious associations".

But the law was re-worked without their participation, and representatives of religious organisation "officially were not even familiarised with the text approved for a second reading," emphasised Starovoitova.

Besides, the deputy said, the law "grossly flouts" the constitution and fails to meet internationally legal acts on human rights.

The breaches, according to Starovoitova, are expressed "in violating the principle of equality of religious associations before the law in that a 15-year probationary period is set for the state registration of religious associations, that foreign citizens and stateless persons residing in Russia are banned from setting up religious associations and that Russian citizens can enjoy this right only in a restricted way".

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Johnson's Russia List

27 June 1997

djohnson@cdi.org