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Jehovah's Witnesses trial to continue at least two more weeks

COURT IN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CASE IN TAGANROG CONDUCTS SOME SESSIONS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Kavkazskii Uzel, 26 May 2015

 

In the course of the latest session of the court in the case of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog who are accused of extremism, witnesses were questioned. The court plans to conduct questioning until 5 June. Five sessions in April and one in May were conducted behind closed doors.

 

As Kavkazskii Uzel has written, 16 members of the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog were charged with extremism since, according to the investigation, in 2011 they continued to conduct worship services and study literature which had been ruled extremist, after the prohibition of the congregation by a Rostov provincial court in September 2009. On 30 July 2014, a city court in Taganrog sentenced four defendants to suspended prison terms and they and another three members of Jehovah's Witnesses were punished with fines.

 

However all of the convicted were released from their penalty because of the elapse of statute of limitations. Another nine defendants were acquitted. On 8 August, all 16 defendants in the case filed an appeal of the sentence of the city court. On the same day the prosecutor's office of Rostov province also appealed the sentence. In March 2015 a second consideration of the case began in a Taganrog city court. On 17 March, two witnesses for the prosecution were questioned and on 14 April the court questioned another two witnesses for the prosecution.

 

One of the lawyers for the defense, Anton Omelchenko, told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent that the latest session of the trial was held on 25 May. Five sessions, from 20 to 23 April and also 12 May were held behind closed doors. "The judge declared that the public should not hear excerpts from extremist publications and therefore the sessions were held behind closed doors," the lawyer declared. He added that at the sessions in April the court examined publications that had been confiscated during searches in believers' homes on 25 August 2011.

 

"Personal libraries and photographs were confiscated from four believers and computers from others; all of that, in the opinion of the investigation, proves the guilt of the accused. And not only those items that were found to be extremist were confiscated, but also some that were found to be not extremist. The agent who conducted the search was questioned. He stated that he planned to return all nonextremist materials. But actually for four years all that was confiscated has not been returned to the defendants," Anton Omelchenko clarified.

 

The attorney said that since 13 May the sessions have again been open. "In the sessions that were held in May, relatives of believers were questioned as witnesses, who explained that some had begun attending worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses at a time when the local religious organizations did not exist judicially and therefore the existence of a legal entity made no difference to them since they had never joined a legal entity," the attorney noted. According to his information, among those questioned there were not only relatives of defendants.

 

The next sessions of the trial will be held from 26 to 29 May as well as from 2 to 5 June, inclusively, at which questioning is also planned.

 

The Taganrog prosecutor's office earlier refused to comment for a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent before the conclusion of the judicial proceedings. (tr. by PDS, posted 27 May 2015)


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