RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Jehovah's Witness walks free in south of Russia

COURT IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA ACQUITS JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ZALIPAEV

Kavkazskii Uzel, 7 October 2020

 

A resident of Maisky, Yury Zalipaev, was found not guilty of calls for extremism. Zalipaev thanked the judge for his impartiality, having noted that the court was able to treat the evidence of the defense with great confidence.

 

As Kavkazskii Uzel has written, the prosecution requested two years in a penal colony settlement for the Jehovah's Witness from Maisky, Yury Zalipaev. Zalipaev's defense asked the court to completely acquit him, recalling the contradictions in the testimonies of witnesses.

 

The Maisky district court of Kabardino-Balkaria has been considering the case of Yury Zalipaev since 16 July 2018. The prosecution claimed that during preaching in the Kingdom Hall (the Jehovah's Witnesses' house of worship) Zalipaev spoke disparagingly about Muslims and Orthodox believers, urging they be beaten. In addition, according to the prosecution's account, Zalipaev distributed religious literature that had been included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Zalipaev did not admit guilt. The defense insisted that the forbidden literature had been planted in the worship building.

 

Today the Maisky district court issued a verdict of acquittal for the believer. Yury Zalipaev thanked everybody who helped defend his liberty.

 

"I am very happy and thankful to everybody who defended my liberty. I saw that members of my family, my friends, that they had prepared themselves for the worst. This was evident even from the way they dealt with their plans for the future. They always thought of how life will be changed after the verdict and their life was planned with an eye on the future verdict. And it pressed on them like a compressed spring. But today they are happy and joyful. Thank you! I am very pleased that the court acted in this case in a principled manner and impartially. The judge revealed all the pros and cons in this case. I was very pleased to hear that. Of course, I very much hoped that it would be this way. But it was only in the courtroom that I was convinced of this. I thank him very much for his honesty and impartiality. During the trial I did not feel pressure. Of course, sometimes I wished that the evidence of the defense would be treated with greater confidence. But the final result did not disappoint me," Yury Zalipaev stated in commenting for a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.

 

In January 2019, a judge of the Maisky district court, on the basis of a prosecutor's petition, closed the criminal case against Zalipaev based on part 1 of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the R.F. because of the decriminalization of the activities that fell under that article. Yury Zalipaev was granted the right to rehabilitation on that article, but the charge of public calls for extremist activity remained in effect.

 

The law about the partial decriminalization of article 282 of the CC RF was adopted by the Russian State Duma on 19 December 2018. According to the text of the law, a person can be held criminally accountable for actions aimed at arousing hatred or strife, or demeaning human dignity, on the basis of sex, race, nationality, language, ancestry, or religion, committed publicly, including use of news media or the internet, only in the event that they are committed by the person after he has been held administratively accountable, a statement on the website of the State Duma of 19 December 2018 says.

 

The right to rehabilitation has been explained to Zalipaev, the lawyer Anton Omelchenko stated today. "How to exercise this right we shall decide later," the lawyer noted, commenting for a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.

 

Yury Zalipaev's case began in Maisky district court on 22 May 2018. There were 41 court sessions and the verdict was announced on 7 October, according to the card file on the court's website. The maximum penalty on part 1 of article 280 of the CC RF consists of four years incarceration. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 October 2020)


Background article:
Drawn-out trial reaches conclusion for Jehovah's Witness
September 22, 2020

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