PSKOV
PROSECUTOR ASKS
RECORD 7.5 YEARS IN PENAL COLONY FOR FAITH IN JEHOVAH FOR
GENNADY SHPAKOVSKY.
SENTENCE TO BE ANNOUNCED 8 JUNE
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 3 June 2020
On 1
June 2020,
61-year-old Gennady Shpakovsky, delivering his final word in a
Pskov city
court, did not acknowledge himself guilty of extremism and he
emphasized that
he is being tried strictly for his faith. The prosecutor
requested for him 7.5
years in a penal colony of general regime and 1.5 years of
restricted liberty.
Referring
to the
frequent decisions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions
of the United
Nations Council on Human Rights demanding a cessation of
repression of
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, Gennady Shpakovsky submitted to
the prosecutor's
office and the court a petition for termination of the criminal
case. Judge
Galina Belik did not consider it necessary to take this into
account.
At the
court session,
the prosecutor requested for Gennady the largest sentence that
has been voiced
in court in the time of religious persecution of Jehovah's
Witnesses in modern
Russia: 7.5 years in a penal colony of general regime with
subsequent
restricted liberty for 1.5 years.
After
the completion
of the debates, the speech of the prosecutor, and Gennady
Shpakovsky's final
word, Judge Belik withdrew for determining the verdict, which
will be announced
on 8 June 2020 at 11:00 a.m.
Gennady
Shpakovsky is
charged with arranging and financing a forbidden organization
(article 282.2
(1) and 282.3 (1) of the Criminal Code of the RF). The opening
of the criminal
case against him was learned about two years ago, after
humiliating mass
searches in homes of believers in Pskov. Before this, he had
been trailed for
several months collecting "clues"—evidence that he was
continuing to
read the Bible with fellow believers and to talk about God with
other
residents. (tr. by PDS, posted 3 June 2020)
Background article:
Leader of Pskov Jehovah's Witnesses awaits
trial,
Sept. 13, 2018
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