COURT LEAVES JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ANATOLY VILITKEVICH UNDER HOUSE ARREST
A Ufa court did not want to change the measure of restraint of a Ufa resident accused on the extremist article.
by Darya Kucherenko
Yesterday, 17 July, the Lenin district court of Ufa extended the house arrest of Ufa resident Anatoly Vilitkevich who is accused of creating a cell of the religious movement of Jehovah's Witnesses, which is forbidden in Russia.
The wife of the accused, Alena
Vilitkevicha, [see photo] explained for
ProUfu.ru that the investigator did not insist on making the
measure of
restraint more severe. "They said that if we do not violate the
conditions
of detention, there will be no changes," the woman explained.
Anatoly Vilitkevich has been under house arrest for about a month; before that he was confined in SIZO No. 1 and he began to undergo a psychiatric expert analysis on the insistence of the investigation.
On 21 June, Vilitkevich's defense attorney
successfully
appealed his detention in the Supreme Court of the republic. This
was preceded
by an appeal of the Council on Human Rights under the president of
the Russian
Federation to the office of the prosecutor general of Russia. The
rights advocates
asked the prosecutors to verify the legality of the prosecution of
believers in
Russia. Vilitkevich is not the only Jehovah's Witness for whom a
criminal case
has been opened, but he is the first citizen of Ufa to suffer from
the new
prohibition. (tr. by PDS, posted 19 July 2018)
Background articles:
Jehovah's
Witness jailed for almost two months without court conviction
April 17, 2018
Legal
scholar points out error of arresting Jehovah's Witness
June 13, 2018
Presidential
council expresses support for Jehovah's Witnesses
June 20, 2018
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