Imprisoned Against the Law

In accordance with this law, in late 1989 and early 1990, Dimitrios Tsirlis and Timotheos Kouloumpas, appointed religious ministers by the Central Congregation of the Christian Jehovah’s Witnesses of Greece, lodged applications with their respective recruitment offices to be exempted from military service. Along with their applications, they supplied documents proving that they were practicing religious ministers. As anticipated, the applications were rejected on the specious ground that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not belong to a “known religion.”

Brothers Tsirlis and Kouloumpas reported to their respective military training centers and were arrested, charged with insubordination, and placed in detention. In the meantime, the General Headquarters for National Defense rejected their appeals of the decisions of the recruitment offices. The military authorities used the argument that the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church had informed them that the faith of Jehovah’s Witnesses is not a recognized religion! This contradicted the rulings of a number of civil courts that had stated that Jehovah’s Witnesses are indeed a known religion.

The military courts in turn found Tsirlis and Kouloumpas guilty of insubordination and sentenced them to four years’ imprisonment. The two brothers appealed these decisions to the Military Appeal Court, which adjourned the examination of the appeal three times for various reasons. However, it refused each time to order the appellants’ provisional release from prison, although Greek law provides for that.

In the meantime, in another set of proceedings, the Supreme Administrative Court annulled the decisions of the General Headquarters for National Defense, on the ground that Jehovah’s Witnesses do indeed belong to a known religion.

During the 15 months that Tsirlis and Kouloumpas had to stay in the Avlona Military Prison, they faced especially inhumane and degrading treatment along with other imprisoned Witnesses. A report of that time spoke of “the sordid prison conditions under which [Jehovah’s Witnesses prisoners] are living, mentioning the spoiled meat and the tails of mice, which are often served along with the food, the curtailing of visiting hours according to the Administration’s whims, the lack of space due to the cells being overcrowded with too many prisoners and the much more severe treatment meted out to such prisoners as are conscientious objectors.”

Finally, the Military Appeal Court acquitted Brothers Tsirlis and Kouloumpas but at the same time ruled that the State had no obligation to compensate them for their detention because “this detention was due to the applicants’ gross negligence.” This raised valid questions in legal circles: Who was responsible for the gross negligence? The Witnesses or the military courts?

The brothers were immediately released from prison and were finally discharged from the armed forces on the basis that they were religious ministers. When they were released, Amnesty International announced that it welcomed the release of Dimitrios Tsirlis and Timotheos Kouloumpas and expressed the hope that in the future, ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses would be exempt from military service in accordance with the provisions of Greek law. Soon, however, this hope would be dashed.

Appeal to the European Court of Human Rights

After being acquitted and then released from prison, all three of the victims of this religious discrimination felt ethically obliged to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The basis of this appeal was their unlawful detention, which by itself proved unjust, and the mental and physical torture they were subjected to, as well as the immense moral and social consequences involved in being repeatedly deprived of their freedom for so long a period of time. For these reasons they pursued a valid and appropriate amount of compensation.

The European Commission of Human Rights unanimously concluded that in the cases of Tsirlis and Kouloumpas, there was a violation of their right to liberty and security of person, their detention was unlawful, they had a right to compensation, and they had not enjoyed a fair hearing by a tribunal. A similar conclusion was reached by the Commission in the case of Georgiadis.

The Injustice Is Corrected

The hearing was set for January 21, 1997. There were many in the courtroom, including students from the local university, journalists, and a number of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Greece, Germany, Belgium, and France.

Mr. Panos Bitsaxis, the attorney for the Witnesses, spoke of “the constant stubborn and persistent attitude of the Greek authorities not to recognise the existence of one religious minority,” namely Jehovah’s Witnesses. He denounced the Greek authorities’ practice of basing their official opinion of the Witnesses on the viewpoint of their chief opponents—the Greek Orthodox Church! He continued: “How far can this go? . . . And until when?” He spoke of the “denial of recognition of a certain religious community, a denial which seems absurd if you see that it comes directly, openly, and without any reasoning, against legality, against dozens of decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court.”

The representative of the Greek government confirmed the biased attitude of the Greek authorities by claiming: “It must not be forgotten that practically the whole population of Greece has belonged to the Orthodox Church for centuries. One natural result of this is that the organisation of that Church and the status of its ministers and their role in the Church are quite clear. . . . The status of ministers from the Church of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is not so clear.” What a flagrant admission of the prejudiced treatment of religious minorities in Greece!

Religious Freedom Upheld

Judgment was delivered on May 29. The President of the Chamber, Mr. Rolv Ryssdal, read out the decision. The Court, composed of nine judges, held unanimously that Greece had violated Articles 5 and 6 of the European Convention. It also awarded the applicants the sum of about $72,000 for compensation and expenses. Most important, the decision included many noteworthy arguments in favor of religious freedom.

The Court noted that “the military authorities blatantly ignored” the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses are recognized as a “known religion” in Greece, according to the rulings of the Supreme Administrative Court. It further commented: “The relevant authorities’ persistence not to recognize Jehovah’s Witnesses as a ‘known religion’ and the disregard of the applicants’ right to liberty that followed were of a discriminatory nature when contrasted with the way in which ministers of the Greek Orthodox Church obtain exemption.”

The case was given wide publicity by the Greek media. Athens News declared: ‘E[uropean] court slams Greece over Jehovah claim.’ The decision in the case Tsirlis & Kouloumpas and Georgiadis v. Greece gives rise to the hope that the Greek State will bring its legislation in line with the European Court’s judgment, so that Jehovah’s Witnesses in Greece may enjoy religious freedom without administrative, military, or church intervention. Furthermore, this is yet another judgment rendered against the Greek judiciary by the European Court on matters relating to religious freedom.a

Jehovah’s Witnesses cherish their freedom, and they endeavor to use it to serve God and to help their neighbor. The three Witness religious ministers pursued their cases to the European Court of Human Rights, not for any material gain, but purely for moral and ethical reasons. Thus, all three have decided that the compensation awarded them will be used exclusively for the furtherance of the educational work of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Timotheos and Nafsika Kouloumpas