COURT
OVERTURNS
DECISION TO RETURN JEHOVAH'S WITNESS CASE TO PROSECUTOR
SOVA Center
for News
and Analysis, 4 February 2020
On 4
February 2020 it
was learned that a Kamchatka territorial court in Kamchatka
territory
overturned a decision of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka city court
that returned
to the prosecutor's office on 12 December 2019 a criminal case
of an adherent
of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, Sergei Ledenev. The
believer is
charged under part 1 of article 282 of the Criminal Code
(arranging the
activity of an extremist organization).
The
reason for
opening the criminal case was that, according to the account of
the
investigation, from September to December 2018, in an apartment
in
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka, Ledenev arranged the activity of a
prohibited
religious association of Jehovah's Witnesses, using
conspiratorial methods. In
that place group divine worship and training sessions were
conducted.
Ledenev was arrested in December 2018 and he posted a signed
pledge not to
depart, which later was changed to an obligation to appear.
We
recall that in
January 2020, the Kamchatka territorial court also overturned a
decision of the
Elizovsk district court and returned to the prosecutor the case
of the
Jehovah's Witnesses Konstantin and Snezhana Bazhenov (b. 1977)
and Vera Zolotova
(b. 1946), who also were accused of arranging the activity of an
extremist
organization. Earlier a case of Jehovah's Witnesses Mikhail and
Elena Popov,
from Viliuchinsk, was sent to court.
Jehovah's
Witnesses
are accused of participating in the activity of an extremist
organization
because in April 2017 the Russian Supreme Court made a decision
to find the
Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395
local religious
organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist. We
consider that this
decision, that led to the widespread prosecution of believers on
the basis of
article 282.2 of the CC, did not have legal grounds and we
regard it as a
manifestation of religious discrimination. (tr. by PDS, posted 4
February 2020)
Jehovah's
Witnesses trial to go on in Far East
January 9, 2020
Over
a dozen cases against Jehovah's Witnesses have been rejected
by judges
16 December 2019
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