ANOTHER
COURAGEOUS
COURT DECISION: CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST BELIEVER SERGEI LEDENEV
RETURNED TO
PROSECUTOR IN KAMCHATKA
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 16 December 2019
On 12
December Judge
Sergei Lubnin of the city court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka
returned to the
prosecutor a criminal case against Sergei Ledenev. As a rule the
court returns
a case if serious violations are found in the indictment.
Sergei
Ledenev is
accused of professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. He
learned about the
criminal case on 2 December 2018, when a search was conducted in
his home. This
was not the first criminal case for faith to be opened in
Kamchatka. In July
2018, in Viliuchinsk, after a series of searches Mikhail and
Elena Popov were
arrested and in August of the same year Konstantin and Snezhana
Bazhenov and
the retiree Vera Zolotov from Elizovo were sent to an IVS [cell
for temporary
detention].
This is
not the first
case where Russian judges have refused to consider criminal
cases against
peaceful citizens who are Jehovah's Witnesses. Thus, in
Kamchatka, a criminal
case of the Bazhenov couple and others in Elizovo was returned
to the
prosecutor's office. Judges also have refused to consider a case
opened against
Valentin Osadchuk and six elderly women in Vladivostok, a case
of Igor Ivashin
in Yakutia, a case of Karimov and others in Tatarstan, and a
case of the Raiman
couple in Kostroma. Despite the courageous decisions of the
judges, believers
still find themselves in the status of defendants and they face
lengthy prison
terms. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 December 2019)
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