RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Jehovah's Witnesses caught in complicated appeals process

PIATIGORSK COURT SIDES WITH DAGESTAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

Kavkazskii Uzel, 4 March 2020

 

The fifth cassation court of general jurisdiction in Piatigorsk found the detention in custody of four Jehovah's Witnesses of Dagestan, who are charged with extremism, to be illegal. Courts in Dagestan will have to take this decision into account, the lawyer thinks.

 

As Kavkazskii Uzel wrote, Jehovah's Witnesses of Dagestan Arsen Abdullaev, Maria Karpova, Anton Dergalev, and Marat Abdulgalimov are defendants in a case regarding extremism. They have been held in custody in a Makhachkala SIZO since June 2019. The Soviet district court of Makhachkala on 24 January extended their detention until 27 March. The Supreme Court of Dagestan on 13 February overruled this decision, ordering the court of the first instance to reconsider the issue of the measure of restriction, but the result of the review was a decision to again leave the believers in custody until 27 March. Meanwhile the cassation court in Piatigorsk accepted the appeal of the believers against repeated extensions of their detention by the court of the first instance. The cassation [that is, appeal of an appellate decision] hearings were supposed to be held on 26 February, but they were postponed to 4 March, since a video link with the defendants was not established,

 

Today the cassation instance considered the appeal of all four Dagestan Jehovah's Witnesses, Arsen Abdullaev, Maria Karpova, Anton Dergalev, and Marat Abdulgalimov, who have been in a SIZO since June of last year on a charge of extremism, a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent was told by a lawyer for the defendants, Maksim Pervunin, who attended court. He explained that the appeal was filed against the decision of the court of the appellate instance, which was issued in October of last year.

 

"Today the cassation court determined that holding the Jehovah's Witnesses in custody is illegal," the lawyer explained. However he noted that this does not mean that his clients must be set free right away.

 

"Of course, this is our victory. But in fact the court cannot consider the case as a whole. It issued a decision only on the specific appeal. At the present time, the appeal was filed against the appellate decision of the Dagestan Supreme Court, issued in October of last year. This decision of the republic's Supreme Court left in force the order of the court of the first instance, issued in September. But after this there were other trials for extending the measures of restriction, which were not rescinded. Therefore all four still cannot be released from custody," the lawyer explained.

 

The Supreme Court of Dagestan, during consideration of another appeal against the latest extension of detention, will have to take into account the cassation determination issued today, Pervunin thinks.

 

"For next week we await the appeals court, which will consider the appeal against the latest extension of the measure of restriction of my clients. We hope that the appellate instance in Dagestan will pay attention to the fact that the cassation court found their detention in custody to be illegal, and will overturn the decision of the court of the first instance extending the detention. Only after this will all four defendants be able to be at liberty," the lawyer added.

 

At the press service of the fifth cassation court, a correspondent of Kavkazskii Uzel was not told over the telephone the results of the session that was held. "The session was hold. The result is known to the parties in the trial. We cannot give information about the result over the telephone; it will be posted on the court's website," a representative of the court declared, noting that the news about this will be published "today or tomorrow."

 

The court session was open, but only 15 persons could get in since the courtroom was small, the wife of Arsen Abdullaev, Suat, told the Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.

 

We recall that about 400 fellow believers gathered at the building of the cassation court in Piatigorsk on 26 February in order to express support for the detained Jehovah's Witnesses of Dagestan. After this, ten persons in Makhachkala were summoned for interrogation. Friends of the accused called this intimidation and an attempt to conceal from the public the trial of the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 March 2020)


Related article:
Jehovah's Witnesses in south Russia face delays of trial while in custody
February 26, 2020

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