Vol. I · Friday, July 10, 2026 RSS  ·  Search  ·  About

News and primary-source research on the Watchtower organization

Jehovah's Witnesses

Topic
The Bundesgerichtshof did not award the more-than-1,000-document archive to anyone; it found the lower court used the wrong standard on good-faith acquisition and sent the case back.Confirmed

German high court revives Jehovah's Witnesses' claim to a Nazi-persecution archive, orders new hearing

Illustration: an archival document box of letters and photographs beside scales of justice

Germany's Federal Court of Justice quashed a Cologne ruling and remanded the dispute over the Kusserow family archive held in a Dresden military museum. Ownership remains undecided.

Director Pablo Aguinaga described the survivors' testimonies as 'devastating; these were deeply broken people who had suffered greatly.'Confirmed

HBO Max Releases Spanish Docuseries 'Surviving the Jehovah's Witnesses'

Illustration: a film clapperboard and a play-button triangle

The three-part series Sobrevivir al Paraiso: Mas alla de los Testigos de Jehova premiered on HBO Max on 20 February 2026, tracing former Spanish members' accounts of abuse, shunning, and legal action. Reception has so far been mixed and thinly covered by major outlets.

The Swedish thread mirrors Norway's: whether a state may withhold public funding from a religious group over its internal membership and shunning practices.Confirmed

Sweden Denies Jehovah's Witnesses State Subsidies, Then a Court Orders Them Restored

Illustration: scales of justice beside a grant document and coins

Sweden's Agency for Support to Faith Communities (SST) ruled on 24 October 2025 that Jehovah's Witnesses failed new 'democracy conditions' for state grants, citing shunning and membership limits. On 7 May 2026 the Stockholm Administrative Court overturned the denial and ordered the grant restored; the agency has appealed.

A duty judge authorized transfusions on the basis of a fax the Court found 'very limited, incorrect and incomplete.'Confirmed

European Court Rules Spain Violated Jehovah's Witness's Rights Over Forced Blood Transfusions

Illustration: scales of justice, an IV blood bag and a legal directive

In Pindo Mulla v. Spain, the ECHR Grand Chamber unanimously found that Spain breached Rosa Edelmira Pindo Mulla's rights when a duty judge authorized three transfusions during emergency surgery despite her advance written refusals. The Court faulted the decision-making process, not the doctors' medical judgment.

A rare announced departure from Jehovah's Witnesses' highest council, followed by a documented content scrubConfirmed

Removed and Deleted: What Happened to Anthony Morris III in 2023

Illustration: a vacant seat at a table and an empty picture frame

On February 22, 2023, the organization behind Jehovah's Witnesses announced in one sentence that Governing Body member Anthony Morris III 'no longer serves' — gave no reason — and then scrubbed his recorded talks from jw.org over the following weeks.

Pennsylvania statewide grand-jury investigationConfirmed

Inside Pennsylvania's Grand-Jury Investigation of Jehovah's Witnesses Abuse Cases (2019–2023)

Illustration: a gavel and indictment before a keystone motif

A statewide investigating grand jury opened in 2019 produced criminal charges against roughly nine men affiliated with Jehovah's Witnesses congregations, across waves announced by Attorneys General Josh Shapiro (2022) and Michelle Henry (2023), alongside scrutiny of how congregations handle abuse reports internally.