UNIDENTIFIED
PERSONS
IN MASKS KIDNAP JEHOVAH'S WITNESS IN COURT HOUSE IN SURGUT
Three
unidentified
persons, hiding their faces under black hoods, on the afternoon
of 4 February,
tried to abduct a Jehovah's Witness, Timofei Zhukov, right from
the courtroom
of the Surgut city court, a Credo.Press portal correspondent
reports. The
believer had arrived for the session in the case of another
local Jehovah's
Witness, Sergei Loginov.
The
attempt to abduct
Timofei Zhukov was recorded on a cell phone of an ABC
correspondent, Patrick
Reevell, who was nearby. According to preliminary information,
the believer is
still in detention and is being "escorted" illegally to
Ekaterinburg.
As
reported earlier,
Judge Tatiana Sliusareva of the Surgut city court, on 16
January, issued an
order that a believer from Surgut, Timofei Zhukov, must be sent
to Ekaterinburg
and stay in a psychiatric hospital for an unprecedented
period—up to 30 days.
The believer was ordered to arrive by 5 February at the
Sverdlovsk regional
psychiatric hospital (in the city of Ekaterinburg) to undergo
expert analysis.
The court's decision has not taken legal effect, since on 20
January Zhukov
appealed it in the Legal College for Criminal Cases of the
Khanty-Mansi
autonomous district--Yugra.
Timofei
Zhukov is an
experienced lawyer and he takes an active part in the defense of
himself and in
the assistance for other victims of the actions of security
forces. In his
appeal against the decision of Judge Sliusareva, he calls
attention to the fact
that the rationale given for the order of a hospital forensic
psychiatric
expert analysis is religious convictions, which is a form of
discrimination and
political repression.
The
investigation
regarded as yet another reason the fact that during a
preliminary out-patient
expert analysis, the accused refused to answer several
questions, appealing to
article 51 of the Russian constitution. This allegedly raises
doubts about his
sanity. In the materials of the case it is affirmed: "It does
not appear
possible to evaluate the physical neurological state of the
subject because of
his refusal to participate in the expert analysis."
In his
appeal, Zhukov
also calls attention to other procedural violations: a closed
court session,
mistakes in the production of materials, the impossibility of
becoming
acquainted with materials of the case, and violation of the
right of the
accused to defense. "My admission to a psychiatric hospital . .
. is an
act of political repression against me and other citizens who
profess the
religion of the Jehovah's Witnesses that is being done in the
Russian
Federation by a number of high officials," the text of the
appeal says.
"[. . .] The continuation of this repressions against me is
caused
exclusively by the reaction of investigator Guselnikov and Judge
Sliusareva to
my exercise of my right provided by article 51 of the
constitution of the RF
not to testify against myself, with the goal of forcing me to
give evidence
either out of fear or as the result of the forced administration
of psychotropic
substances."
At the
present time,
21 residents of Surgut are awaiting trial because they profess
the religion of
the Jehovah's Witnesses. Increased attention to this Siberian
city was
attracted by tortures that security personnel applied to
peaceful citizens
because of their faith in February of last year.
The
religion of the
Jehovah's Witnesses is not forbidden in Russia, although in
April 2017 the
Russian Supreme Court found all 396 religious organizations of
this confession
to be extremist and liquidated them on the territory of the
country. (tr. by
PDS, posted 5 February 2020)
FORCED PSYCHIATRIC EXAMINATION ORDERED FOR SUSPECTED FOLLOWER OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN SURGUT
by Viktoria Odissonova
Novaya Gazeta, 21 January 2020
On 16 January the Surgut city court ordered to send Timofei Zhukov to a psychiatric hospital for conducting a forced psychiatric expert analysis. He is suspected of creating a congregation of the Jehovah's Witnesses (ruled to be an extremist organization) who are forbidden in Russia. Yesterday Zhukov appealed the decision.
Zhukov is one of 21 representatives of the confession who find themselves under investigation after widespread arrests in Surgut in February of last year. At the time, searches were conducted at 22 addresses. All of them were taken for interrogation in a S.K.R. building, after which some of the believers complained about torture: during interrogation investigators used an electric shock device, beat them with batons, and doused them with water.
"Such an evaluation can be ordered only by a court," Zhukov explains. "On 13 January this order was issued for me and on 16 January an investigator phoned me. He said that in two hours a petition from the chief of the investigative group, A.V. Guselnikov, for my forced admission to a psychiatric hospital, will be considered. Judge T.S. Sliusareva of the Surgut court had issued an order to the effect that I must be placed in a psychiatric hospital in Ekaterinburg. At the same time, the M.V.D. service was required to transport me there.
"That is 1,200 kilometers from my home. For 30 days. During which they will simply shut me up in a hospital and will do what they want."
"An outpatient psychiatric examination was ordered for all suspects," Zhukov continues. "But during the process of this expert analysis, they begin asking questions specifically about the case: who are you? which Bible do you read? It turns out that this is the interrogation itself."
Zhukov himself refused the outpatient examination, calling it an inappropriate inspection. "The investigator thinks that I am arranging their [i.e. the victims'] defense," he says. "They think that I am the one who directs the Witnesses and who advises them. But I simply defend my own rights: I write petitions and appeals."
In a year, the opening of a case against the subjects had been refused three times, although the case of 21 suspects was transferred to the Main Investigative Department in Moscow. According to Zhukov, five investigators have been dispatched to Surgut and they are conducting this case. All subjects were entered into the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and terrorists; they cannot even use their bank accounts any more as they have been frozen. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 February 2020)
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