SUMMARY OF HEARING IN CASE OF DANISH BELIEVER IN OREL.
JUNE 2018
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 13 July 2018
In June of 2018, five court sessions were held: 4,5,6,13, and 14 June 2018. In this time, two witnesses were questioned and the other days were devoted to examining recordings of secret videos of worship services, that were held on 19 and 26 February, 2017, and also written materials of the case on which the prosecution is relying.
On 4 June 2018, during the course of six hours, a secret witness was questioned in court in open session, whose face was not visible and whose voice was altered. The secret witness's speech was well delivered, on the level of a university teacher. He was well versed in religious specifics. One got the impression that the answers had been verified by the state prosecution. In answering all of the prosecutor's questions, the witness tried to point to the "special" role of Christensen, who, he maintained, was the most important person among Jehovah's Witnesses in Orel and Orel oblast. The witness described how he attended services of the Jehovah's Witnesses about ten times. He was forced to acknowledge that all these events were held peacefully and there was no threat to him and others: believers sang songs, praised God, delivered prayers, listened to biblical speeches, and discussed the Bible with the aid of questions and answers. He also shared his impressions about Jehovah's Witnesses: they maintain "normal, working relations" with the state, "but they do not serve in the armed forces."
Dennis Christensen declared in the courtroom that this secret witness is Oleg Kurdiumov. It is known that Oleg Gennadievich Kurdiumov is a teacher in the department of "Humanities and Natural Sciences Disciplines" of the Orel State University, a graduate of the department of religious studies and theology, and a specialist in the area of para-Orthodox heresies. The secret witness recounted a number of myths about Jehovah's Witnesses. For example, he stated that Jehovah's Witnesses allegedly break off relations with relatives if the latter profess a different religion; otherwise the believers will go to Hell along with their relatives. (Jehovah's Witnesses have no such beliefs.) To the lawyers' question of where the witness obtained such information, he cited Wikipedia.
The secret witness did not answer all questions willingly. For example, in responding to a prosecution's question, the witness declared that only their "own" folk may enter the meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses, and entry is closed to outsiders. The defense asked how he himself got into the services, but the witness began responding evasively. During the questioning, article 51 of the constitution was actively used, selecting which questions he must answer and which not. For example, in the case there is material from an operational search—audio tapes of a conversation that occurred on 16 May 2017 between Christensen and Kurdiumov in the café "Country Chicken" in Orel. When the secret witness was asked whether he met with Christensen in this café, the witness refused to answer, claiming "this may disclose [his] identity."
On 6 June 2018, a new witness was questioned, 55-year-old Sergei Filippov, who explained that he had been baptized as a Jehovah's Witness in Ukraine 13 years ago. But in 2014, because of military activity in the Donbass, where he was living with his family of many children, he was forced to move to Russia. After settling in Orel, he discovered to his surprise that Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia did not have religious literature because customs agencies prohibited its importation in Russia. He regularly attended worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orel and there were no signs of extremism in them. Jehovah's Witnesses' services are conducted peacefully in accordance with an identical procedure throughout the world.
On 5, 13, and 14 June, the trial was held behind closed doors because video tapes of worship services held on 19 and 26 February 2017, which had been secretly recorded by order of the Department of the F.S.B. for Orel oblast, were examined.
The next judicial session is scheduled for 2 July 2018. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 July 2018)
JULY 2 TO 4, 2018
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 13 July 2018
The surname of Orthodox theologian Oleg Kurdiumov was again heard in court.
On 2 July 2018, the prosecutor partially published in open court session procedural documents that gave evidence that a conversation of Kurdiumov and Christensen in the café "Country Chicken," that occurred on 16 May 2017, was secretly recorded on a dictaphone. (Oleg Kurdiumov is a teacher of the Orel State University, a graduate of the department of religious studies and theology, and a specialist in the area of the history of para-Orthodox heresies.) Attorney Anton Bogdanov called the court's attention to the fact that a printed transcript of the stenogram, made by personnel of the U.F.S.B., in some places distorts the meaning of what Christensen said during the conversation with Kurdiumov, and that listening to the audio tape will help establish this fact.
After this, the court examined in closed session the audiotape of the conversation of these two persons. (Remaining behind the closed doors of the session was information as to what motives drove the young historian, who showed up alongside Christensen just when the F.S.B. was conducting a secret video or audio recording. Only the prosecutors, lawyers, judge, and the defendant himself were left in the courtroom and were able to hear the conversation between Christensen and Kurdiumov at the small table in an ordinary café in Orel, after which, nine days later, Christensen was arrested. What questions that evening of 16 May 2017 concerned the Orthodox theologian Kurdiumov? Was he interested in biblical teachings, or did he try to draw out Christensen on topics of interest to personnel of the F.S.B.? It remains to be hoped that the answers to these question will be heard during the debates of the sides of the prosecution and defense, and possibley also in the court's verdict.)
On 3 July 2018 the state prosecutor examined in open court session documents contained in volumes 2 and 3 of the criminal case, from which it follows that telephone conversations of Dennis Christensen and another four citizens were listened to, by decision of the Zheleznodorozhny district court of the city of Orel, during the course of six months. And Christensen's conversations continued to be overheard also after he was placed in the SIZO, all the way to January 2018.
On 3 and 4 July 2018 the court session was conducted again behind closed doors, because this was connected with listening to audio tapes of telephone conversations of persons identified in volumes 2 and 3 of the criminal case.
The next court session is scheduled for 9 July 2018. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 July 2018)
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