A/51/542/Add.1 English Page 19 courts and the Council of State confirms its earlier decisions recognizing the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a known religion. However, the Administration does not draw any conclusions from these decisions and requires that the question be resolved each time in the courts. So legal proceedings have to be instituted in each case. Moreover, in the meantime, Jehovah’s Witness ministers are detained for refusing to do their military service (for example, the case of Anastasios Tasos Georgiadis, Special Rapporteur’s communication of 9 October 1992 (E/CN.4/1993/62); and petitions Nos. 19233/91 and 19234/91, Dimitris Tsirus and Timotheos Kouloumpas versus Greece; report of the European Commission of Human Rights of 7 March 1996). Religious activities, places of worship and conscientious objection 85. With regard to applications for building permits for places of worship, the Jehovah’s Witnesses encounter difficulties similar to those described in the case of Catholics and Protestants. Since they are denied permission or do not hear from the Ministry of Education and Worship due to the opposition of the Orthodox Church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses resort to renting rooms which are used for religious ceremonies and finally as places of worship. However, in accordance with the Necessity Acts, these unauthorized places of worship are sealed off by the police and the persons in charge of them are convicted by the courts. 86. Several cases reveal disturbing situations which the European Commission of Human Rights has described as violations of religious freedom (petition No. 18748/91, Titos Manoussakis and others versus Greece, report of the European Commission of Human Rights of 25 May 1995; petition No. 23238/94, Zizis Pentidis, Dimitrios Katharios and Anastassios Stagopoulos versus Greece, report of the Commission of 27 February 1996) and have been the subject of communications from the Special Rapporteur (case of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation of Gazi, in Heraklion, Crete; case of the head of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Alexandroupolis, Special Rapporteur’s communication of 3 November 1994, report E/CN.4/1995/91). 87. In certain localities there is discrimination against Jehovah’s Witnesses in the cemeteries. For example, in the local cemetery at Xanthi, a wall was built in order to separate the graves of the Jehovah’s Witnesses from those of persons of other denominations. The metropolitan bishop is said to have demanded that the wall be built and the mayor acceded to the demand. The wall was eventually torn down in 1994 but the maintenance staff apparently do not tend to the graves of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 88. Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses are said to have been arrested and to have served long prison sentences for proselytism. There are numerous examples of these violations of religious freedom, in particular the case of Kokkinakis, a Jehovah’s Witness who was exiled six times, arrested more than 60 times and served five years in various prisons for proselytism (Special Rapporteur’s communication of 9 October 1992, E/CN.4/1994/79; case of Kokkinakis versus Greece - 3/1992/348/421 - decision, European Court of Human Rights). 89. With regard to conscientious objection, aside from the observations already made in chapters I and II, according to reports from non-governmental sources, /...