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The Falun Dafa spiritual practice has been persecuted in China since 1999 and resulted in over 3,000 deaths at the hands of Communist authorities. Now, practitioners in Russia are under pressure from their government, which has banned the main book of the practice, calling it "extremist."

It was a bestseller in Beijing and has been translated into more than 30 languages, but the main book of the Falun Dafa spiritual practice was banned again in Russia last Thursday.

The Board of Civil Affairs at Krasnodar Regional Court decided to place the book, titled Zhuan Falun, on the Ministry of Justice's list of extremist literature three years ago. That decision was then reversed in 2009, but later the case was re-opened from the regional to the district level. On October 27 this year, the court put the book on the list of extremist literature and on December 22, the court confirmed the decision to ban Zhuan Falun again.

The lawyer representing the Russian Falun Dafa Association says the decision was not fair.

[Mikhail Sinitsyn, Lawyer Representing Falun Dafa Association]:
"The right for equality between the parties was violated during the trial... this alone gives grounds for cancelling the decision. However the court did not hear our cancellation arguments."

When the Board initially set the ban three years ago they did not notify Falun Dafa practitioners.

Seven independent expert researchers have concluded the book should not be called 'extremist,' as it does not incite social, racial, ethnic or religious friction.

Department head of Scientific Publications of the Russian State Historical Archive, D. Raskin, has studied the book.

NTD News, Krasnodar, Russia.