COURT IN
YAKUTIA
RETURNS CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST IGOR IVASHIN TO PROSECUTOR
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 22 November 2019
The
Lensk district
court of the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), with Judge Sergei
Osmushin presiding,
returned to the prosecutor's office a case that was opened on 29
June 2018
against a local believer. The measure of restriction that was
selected for him,
in the form of a signed pledge not to depart, remains in force.
Igor
Ivashin was
charged in a criminal case after police raids were conducted in
Lensk in the
summer of 2018. Investigative activities connected with it had
been conducted
since back in February 2018, when authorities began audio and
video
surveillance at his place of residence and his telephone was
tapped.
Judge
Sergei Osmushin
concluded that the charge advanced against Igor Ivashin was not
specific. He
said that in the materials of the case the investigator did not
indicate just
what constituted the illegal actions of the believer. It was
also unclear how
"religious singing" and "preaching" were connected with the
continuation of the activity of a liquidated religious
organization that had
never been registered in Lensk. The court also noted that
"understanding"
what the conclusions of experts that were presented in the
criminal case gave
evidence of is "just not possible." (tr. by PDS, posted 23
November
2019)
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