Publié le mercredi 26 janvier 2011 à 11H00 Posted Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 11:00
Jehovah's Witnesses seek the right to become prison chaplains, especially in Laon.

The hearing took place Friday morning at Lille in administrative court.  And the case is admittedly unusual.

Two lawyers had come to plead the cause of three Jehovah's Witnesses who wish to become chaplains in prison, Bapaume, Rouen and Laon.

A first request five years ago has been refused by the prison administration.  A decision overturned by the Administrative Court of Lille a year later, ordering the réinstruction records of the three candidates Jehovah to the chaplaincy.

 But the prison authorities had confirmed his refusal and appealed, arguing that inmates who wish to appeal to Jehovah's Witnesses were not enough.

The fact is, moreover, that the Jehovah's Witnesses are still at the heart of a controversy in France, between the side of a sectarian movement awarded by the parliamentary commission on sects in its report in 1995 and the Another recognition as a religious association by the State Council since 2000.

For Me and Philippe Michel Trizac Goni, lawyers and witnesses, the only question is, however, whether the sole under the law, something can prevent ministers of religion Jehovist to obtain approval from prison chaplain?  For them, there is no doubt that the judge can decide that once again the annulment of the refusal of prison authorities.  Me Philippe Goni said in passing that when the Administrative Council was seized for one of three ministers of religion, in February 2007 Halde (High Authority against Discrimination and for Equality) had issued an opinion holding that this refusal to requests for approvals amounted to discrimination based on religious beliefs.

Besides, thirty procedures to obtain approval of a prison chaplain would be taken at national level. The Lille court, it must render its decision within a month.

Finally, penitentiary at Laon three religions are represented: a Catholic chaplain, a Protestant chaplain and a Muslim chaplain.  According to Rene Schneeberger, one of three ministers of religion seeking the right to become chaplain at Laon, one in two inmates per year would demand the intervention of a department Jehovist.  To answer this, the Jehovah's Witnesses require the right to visit and meet with detainees in the parlor, but can not get there with the Bible.