AFTER VIOLATING LAW, PROSECUTORS SEEK WAYS TO EVADE RESPONSIBILITY
by Vladimir Ozolin
Religiia i Pravo, 26 February 2018
In Krasnoyarsk territory a process has begun for collecting damages for the illegal holding of a pastor of one of the local religious organizations to administrative accountability.
In March 2017, a magistrate judge issued an indictment with respect to a local religious organization and an officer, the pastor, of said organization on the basis of part 3 of article 5.26 of the Russian Code of Administrative Violations of Law (conducting activity without an indication of the official complete name); that is, more simply put, for the lack of a sign on the front of a church building. In reality, complete information was provided inside the building on a special stand.
Despite this, the church and the pastor were sentenced by the court to a fine of 30,000 rubles each. By a decision of a city court, both orders were left without change. The fines had to be paid.
However, by a decision of a territorial court, both indictments were cancelled and proceedings on the cases were ended, which made possible filing in court a lawsuit for recovery of the damages caused. The law permits doing this, especially when the judicial actions were illegal.
Since the fine had been paid, and the pastor needed the services of a defense lawyer for defense in the proceedings in the case of an administrative violation of law, the decision was made to seek the damages caused from the Russian federation in the person of the prosecutor's office of Krasnoyarsk territory and the Ministry of Finance.
In addition, on 7 November 2017, in an order in case 80-AD17-4, issued by the Russian Supreme Court, it was indicated that in a case of violation of law of this category, only a legal entity—the religious organization—can be a special subject. In our case, besides the religious organization's being held accountable, its leader also was. This circumstance only strengthened our position.
And so a civil lawsuit was filed. But the Central district court of the city of Krasnoyarsk did not agree to accept it for various reasons. And this is understandable, for who is prepared to go in conflict with the interests of the state? Only a logical and literate composition of the appeal in a court of higher instance helped the case to more forward.
The determination of the district court was quashed and on 8 February 2018 the first judicial session was held.
Surprisingly, all parties appeared at the judicial session. The prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Finance did not acknowledge the lawsuit, shifting the civil and legal responsibility against each other.
However, the court made the proper decision of involving the office of the prosecutor general of Russia as a third party. Much will depend on its position regarding the case, but the governmental organs will have to answer for the illegality of their actions.
The local prosecutor objected to the involvement of the office of the prosecutor general; after all, who wants "to take the garbage out of the hut"? After all, when the higher prosecutor's office learns what happened it will surely conduct an investigation and that may cost someone his job.
In everyday work we confront unreasonable actions by law enforcement agencies and other state bodies, and we summon them to observe legality in exercising their responsibilities. Also, like you, we would not wish to waste time on judicial proceedings. But sometimes you do not leave us a choice, and we are forced to turn to a court for defense of our rights that have been violated. Treat this with understanding.
We will continue to follow the development of events and we will seek complete compensation for the harm caused. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 February 2018)
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January 15, 2018
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