WATCHTOWER HYPOCRISY

Woman in doghouse over Jehovah's Witness sign

Fri Jul 28, 2006

LONDON (Reuters) - A woman has been ordered by police to take down a sign on her garden gate which read "Our dogs are fed on Jehovah's Witnesses."

Pensioner Janet Grove, who owns a Jack Terrier puppy called Rabbit, insisted the sign was a gentle joke to discourage callers at her front door.

Her late husband put the sign up more than 30 years ago when members of the church called at their house on Christmas Day.

But police were forced to act after receiving a complaint.

"We were informed by a member of the public who found the sign to be distressing, offensive and inappropriate," a police spokesman said. "Officers attended the address and the sign was voluntarily taken down."

Police track money from Berka case to Jehovah's Witnesses

Prague, Sept 7 (CTK) - Police are investigating whether money that a criminal gang around former bankruptcy judge Jiri Berka embezzled from Czech companies through fraudulent bankruptcies ended up in bank accounts of the people connected with Jehovah's Witnesses, Mlada fronta Dnes reported Thursday.

"This was either an ingenious network through which the group laundered the money or its members used the structure of the firms belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses for the legalisation of their profits from the business," a detective told the paper.

Mlada fronta Dnes writes that bankruptcy fund administrator Daniel Thonat, the crown witness in the current court proceedings with Berka's criminal group, is a former member of the fundamentalist Christian religious society. Igor Brdlik, whom police consider the mastermind of the group, also had contacts with influential people from the sect.

Judge Jiri Bernat, the chief judge in the trial of the group that is currently underway, has declined to comment on the role of Jehovah's Witnesses for the time being. "It is not on the agenda at present," he said.

Mlada fronta Dnes writes that, according to the state attorney, the criminal gang around Berka embezzled almost CZK 300 million from Czech companies. Police believe that the group's profits could reach CZK 500 million.