COURT IN
PSKOV
SENTENCES JEHOVAH'S WITNESS TO 6.5 YEARS IN PENAL COLONY OF
GENERAL REGIME
Sixty-one-year-old
Gennady
Shpakovsky was sentenced to the longest prison term on charges
of
arranging the activity of an extremist organization and its
financing.
On 9
June, the Pskov
city court sentenced 61-year-old Jehovah's Witness Gennady
Shpakovsky to six
and a half years in a penal colony of general regime. This was
reported to the
publication 7 x 7 by attorney Arli Chimirov.
Shpakovsky
was given
the longest term of punishment, as of today, out of all
Jehovah's Witnesses
convicted in Russia, having been found guilty of arranging the
activity of the
local cell of Jehovah's Witnesses (part 1, article 282.2 of CC
RF) and
financing an extremist organization (part 1, article 282.3 of CC
RF). The
believer did not acknowledge guilt.
We
recall that on 4
June 2020, during the debates, the prosecution asked for seven
and a half years
in a colony of general regime for Shpakovsky.
In April
2017, the
Russian Supreme Court ruled that the Administrative Center of
Jehovah's Witnesses
in Russia was an extremist organization and it liquidated it. In
August of the
same year, all congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses were entered
into the list
of forbidden extremist organizations.
The
Memorial human
rights center considers that the detained Jehovah's Witnesses
are political
prisoners and it demands ending the prosecution of Jehovah's
Witnesses
connected with their religious affiliation. (tr. by PDS, posted
10 June 2020)
PSKOV
JEHOVAH'S
WITNESS WHO DISCUSSED BIBLE WITH FRIENDS SENTENCED A RECORD 6.5
YEARS INCARCERATION
On 9
July, Judge
Galina Belik of the Pskov city court sentenced 61-year-old
Gennady Shpakovsky
of Pskov to 6.5 years in a penal colony of general regime, a
Credo.Press portal
correspondent reports, citing sources from among Russian
Jehovah's Witnesses.
They said that the entire guilt of the believe consists in group
discussion of
the Bible with friends.
The
court found
Gennady Shpakovsky guilty of arranging the activity of an
extremist
organization and of financing it, having concluded that
religious meetings with
fellow believers are not an exercise of the private right to
freedom of
religious confession but the continuation of the activity of the
legal entities
of Jehovah's Witnesses that had been liquidated by decisions of
courts.
Gennady
Shpakovsky
totally denies he is guilty of extremism. In his appeal to the
judge in his
final word he recalled that in soviet times millions of citizens
were repressed
on the basis of false charges, including Jehovah's Witnesses,
who later were
rehabilitated by authorities. "Most unfortunately, history is
being
repeated. Today I and my fellow believers are being treated in a
similar way. We
are being accused of monstrous crimes, which do not only
disagree with my
Christian convictions but also are incompatible with the
consciousness of a
sane person," the believer said.
"The
evidence in
the case consists only in reports that I profess the religion of
Jehovah's
Witnesses and, among other things, I met with fellow believers
to view video recordings
of worship services, sang songs with them, prayed to Jehovah
God, and discussed
my convictions with others," Gennady Shpakovsky declared, and he
explained
that not a single one of these actions is mentioned in the law
"On
combating extremist activity."
The
believer cited
the explanation by the Russian government to the effect that the
judicial
prohibition of 396 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses rendered
in 2017
"does not give an assessment of the religious teachings of
Jehovah's
Witnesses and does not contain a restriction or prohibition of
professing the
aforementioned teachings on an individual basis."
"It is
paradoxical, but in one of the last sessions, Judge Belik
personally emphasized
that profession of a religion and group meetings and prayers are
not crimes but
are the right of citizens of Russia enshrined in article 28 of
the Russian
constitution," Shpakovsky's lawyer Arli Chimirov explained.
Before that,
Belik declared that the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses is
unacceptable in
Russian society and she suggested to the believers that they
depart for a place
where their faith is "more needed."
Gennady
Shpakovsky
became the eleventh Russian Jehovah's Witness sent to prison for
faith since
2017. The criminal case against the believer was opened in early
2018. Before
that, security forces trailed the believer for several months.
On 3 June 2018
he was arrested in the apartment of friends at a time when they
were peacefully
discussing the Bible. Armed personnel of the F.S.B., joined by
OMON troops,
broke down a door and in the course of six hours they searched
the residence,
after which they interrogated believers in the department of law
enforcement
agencies for several more hours. The security forces persuaded
some of them to
incriminate themselves, threatening them with a ten-year prison
term, dismissal
from work, and other problems.
The
decision to rule
all 396 religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia
to be
extremist and to liquidate them was made by the Russian Supreme
Court. (tr. by
PDS, posted 10 June 2020)
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