SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — LDS Church leaders in Russia have challenged the deportation of six American volunteers from the country in a statement on a church website.
In early August, police in Samara, one of Russia's largest cities, detained the six men and women for a few hours for allegedly failing to register with migration authorities. The six, ages 19 to 25, had served as Mormon missionaries until Russia implemented a new anti-terrorism law on July 20 that requires any proselytizing to happen within houses of worship. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints redesignated all its missionaries in Russia as volunteers.
Courts in Samara ordered the six volunteers deported and banned from Russia for five years, but not for violating the new law. The church transferred five of the volunteers to a nearby Russian-speaking mission outside the country. The other volunteer was near the end of her service, and she returned to the United States.
The church's statement on mormonnewsroom.ru said migration authorities for years registered missionary volunteers at the faith's Samara headquarters and allowed them to stay at other apartments under residential lease agreements.
"Registration with the migration authorities at any of the said addresses was fully in accordance with the effective laws," the church said. "Samara courts decided that these U.S. citizens should have been registered at the addresses where they lived. However, even in this particular instance, the court-imposed administrative penalty to expel them from Russia is clearly disproportionate. The religious association is considering appealing these court rulings."
A regional court rejected initial appeals of the deportation orders.
More than 22,000 Mormons worship in 100 Russian congregations.
Prosecutors have filed charges against at least six people — Baptists, a Pentecostal, a Seventh Day Adventist and a Hare Krishna — for allegedly violating the new law, Forum 18 reported.
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