SHOTLIST 1. Mid of court session 2. Mid of Tomsk regional court judge Galina Butenko taking seat 3. Close up of book "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" in Russian on table with other documents 4. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Galina Butenko, judge of Tomsk regional court: "The text of the book "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" doesn't contain any statements of provocative character, appeals in favour of hostile or violent actions toward people of a certain confession, nationality or ethnicity, or any statements justifying a perpetration of these actions." 5. Mid of prosecution member speaking 6. Mid of audience and Enver Izmaylov (first from left on screen), leader of Tomsk's Hare Krishna community, listening 7. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Enver Izmaylov, leader of Tomsk's Hare Krishna community: "This is a victory of all the sensible people of Russia as well as India. We are very glad that in our country a dialogue, a very important thing for our society, is going on. Because if we talk about resistance to extremism, then the main force which resists extremism is honest and open dialogue." 8. Documents being handed in to Butenko during court session 9. Mid of prosecution members 10. Close up of book "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" in Russian on table with notes inside STORYLINE: A Russian court has decided not to ban a religious text central to the global Hare Krishna movement, rejecting claims that the text is "extremist" and ending a case that has angered Hindus around the world. The Indian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday it appreciated the court's decision. Prosecutors in the Siberian city of Tomsk had argued that the Russian translation of "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" promoted social discord and hatred toward non-believers, causing an outcry in India, where many considered the proposed ban a violation of the rights of Hindus in Russia. The text is a combination of the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism's holiest scriptures, and commentary by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which is often called the Hare Krishna movement. The prosecutors had asked the court to include the book on the Federal List of Extremist Materials, which bans more than one-thousand texts, including Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and books distributed by the Jehovah's Witness and Scientology movements. Enver Izmaylov, leader of Tomsk's Hare Krishna community, said the group was satisfied with the court's decision. "This is a victory of all the sensible people of Russia as well as India. We are very glad that in our country a dialogue, a very important thing for our society, is going on," Izmaylov said. The trial, which began in June, followed this year's ban on the construction of a Hare Krishna village in Tomsk and was based on an assessment by professors at Tomsk University, who concluded that "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" includes strong language against non-believers and promotes religious hatred and discrimination on the basis of gender, race, nationality and language. The ruling came a day after Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna met with Alexander Kadakin, Russia's ambassador to India, and urged the Russian government to resolve the issue. Indian officials had last week appealed to high-level Russian authorities to intervene. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/9a1e0152525983e59574fa6aad7d3ec3 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 30 Jul 2015
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