Russia probing Jewish law as "incitement"

June 27, 2005

The Moscow District Prosecutor's Office has dropped its investigation of Russian on charges of  incitement and distribution of anti-Russian material for having published an abridged translation of a 16th Century  text on. Jewish leaders were summoned for questioning about the as the apparent first step of a probe into whether all Jewish organizations should be banned in Russia.

Disbanding all Jewish organizations in Russia was requested in a January 13, 2005 letter to the State Prosecutor General signed by 20 members of the. The letter was expanded into a petition signed by 500 well-known public figures, church officials and army generals in March. After being published in a newspaper, the petition gleaned 5,000 signatures. It called the anti- and inhumane, and even practicing  of Christian children  Excerpts in English].

Although the Russian Foreign Ministry had condemned the letter, the St. Petersburg District Prosecutor's Office declared that it was not and declined to file incitement charges against Rus Pravoslavnaya, the newspaper that published it.