SATAN, WITNESSES, AND JEHOVAH: HOW THE DESCENDANT OF VIKINGS DENNIS IS BEING TRIED IN OREL
by Denis Volin
In the Zheleznodorozhny court of Orel the court proceedings have begun in the criminal case of extremism with respect to the subject of the Danish monarchy Dennis Christensen. The Dane is accused that after the ban of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel, he continued to direct it and to develop it. Christensen has been in a SIZO for about a year, but he does not consider himself to be an extremist. His lawyers in court declare that the criminal prosecution of their client contains signs of discrimination and genocide on the basis of religious identity. Orlovskie Novosti is describing how the first hearings on this international case went.
First Day
Dennis Christensen was arrested on 26 May 2017 directly after searches in the so-called Kingdom Hall, the property on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street in Orel. According to the account of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which initiated the criminal prosecution of the Dane, adherents of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel, which was banned a year earlier, conducted meetings and held worship services. During the searches, according to the reckoning of the chekists [political police] at the time, more than 1,500 copies of religious literature, including some of an extremist nature, were seized. Also they reported about audio and video materials of meetings, electronic data storage, accounting documents regarding the amount of funding of the structure, sources of financial receipts, and also forms of subscription lists "with contact information about members of the congregation who refuse to fulfill civic obligations." All of this, according to the information of the investigation, indicates that Dennis Christensen was involved in the crime provided for by part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the RF.
On 23 April 2018, during the first hearings of the case, the state's indictment specified what it has in view. According to information of the investigation and the prosecutor's office, Christensen, while knowing that the Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel had been banned by a court as an extremist organization, did not back down and continued to support the functioning of this structure. Prosecutors added to this: conduct of meetings and worship services, singing of songs, distribution of literature, and even conspiracy. As noted in the indictment, in this case as conspiracy should be understood that printed literature was distributed mainly to elderly people and to all the rest, including what is sacred and obviously forbidden, by means of electronic files for tablets and computers. In general, as the prosecutor noted during presentation of the indictment, in his opinion Christensen "committed a crime against the foundations of the constitutional structure of the Russian Federation." Incidentally, the sanctions of the article applied to the Dane provide for a punishment of up to 10 years incarceration.
Expressing his opinion regarding the charges brought against Christensen, attorney Viktor Zhenkov called it illegal. In particular, in arguing his position, the defense attorney explained that the investigation interpreted the legal norms incorrectly. Zhenkov noted that in Russia the legal entity "Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel" has been banned (the decision of the court regarding liquidation of the Administrative Center of Jehovists was made later and Christensen is not charged with the continuation of its activity—ed. note), but the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses has not been banned by a single court.
"There is not a single law that prohibits citizens of Orel to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of religious confession. However now they are in fact forced to renounce their faith, or otherwise leave the country. Therefore the indictment, in my opinion, contains signs of discrimination and genocide. However the current trial may show that Russia does not intend to take the path of genocide," Zhenkov said.
Attorney Anton Bogdanov added that the indictment is based on the criminalization of ordinary human action on the basis of religion. "Worship services and songs exist in almost all religions. But what everybody can do, for some reason Dennis Christensen cannot," he noted, and asked the court to return the case to the prosecutor's office. However Judge Aleksei Rudnev, after brief consideration, came to the conclusion that there were no grounds at all for that.
Second Day
On the second day of the hearings, the first witnesses were summoned to the court. They were an agent of the Orel directorate of the FSB, who conducted operational search activity, and also a former parishioner of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. The agent, in particular, described how he began conducting surveillance at the property on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street after receiving operational information. He recorded how people arrived there, who were met at the gates by Dennis Christensen, and he saw in part what was happening on the territory of the residence, and he recorded a conversation of the Dane with some man in a café on October Street and also conducted a search in the apartment of yet another adherent of Jehovah's Witnesses, Vladimir Melnik. The agent said that during the search in the apartment, literature, including some ruled to be extremist, was confiscated.
"Literature was carefully stored in shelves and in boxes in all three rooms," the agent of security bodies related. He said that he was aided in distinguishing forbidden literature from permitted literature by a list that a colleague had given him.
"Did you record the fact of seizure of extremist literature in the log?" attorney Anton Bogdanov asked the witness. The witness answered that, of course. "Here is the log; point to it," the lawyer immediately took to the offensive. As was revealed, it was not recorded in the log. Suddenly the lawyer put the following question, which forced even the presiding judge to intervene: "Did you undergo the procedure of baptism in an Orthodox church in childhood?"
Judge Aleksei Rudnev hastened to remove that question. Then the lawyer asked whether the chekist had visited services of any other confessions. The agent answered that he had not. To the question of yet another of the Dane's attorneys, Irina Krasnikova, who asked how the FSB determined that those arriving at the building on Zheleznodorozhny Street were members of the legal entity Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel, the witness answered: "That is operational information." And he implied that he did not intend to share it. Christensen himself declined to put questions to the FSB agent due to their meaninglessness. " Ingen spørgsmål til vidnet," he said.
Witness Tamara Kiriushina, having just managed to enter the courtroom, immediately stated that the Dane knows the Russian language very well. However, at least in court, Christensen has still not uttered a word in Russian in almost a year. Only once did he share his mastery of prison life. He said that he eats sechka in the SIZO, which amused his advocates, who came by the dozens to the sessions in order to support him.
Tamara Kiriushina is a woman of some years. She attended the Kingdom Hall for the first time in 2013, on an invitation of a friend, Irina. She urged her to study together "the splendid book, the Bible." The witness described how she participated in worship services and saw brochures on a table, but at the same time Christensen told her that at the entry into the hall there hung a list of extremist literature that was forbidden to bring there. In addition the woman declared that it happened at times that forbidden brochures were published under a different title. She said that up to 100 persons assembled at the meetings.
"They praised Jehovah and they sang songs. They studied the contents of brochures they held in their hands, along with a speaker. The thoughts crept into my mind, why is Jehovah the master of the whole world? After all, God is one, so why then is Jehovah the master?" the woman shared her observations.
She also described how there was a box with donations in the hall. To be sure, people donated independently and nobody urged them to do this. They also arranged so-called "ministry." They broke up into pairs and canvassed in buildings to proclaim. The witness said that Dennis gave the order to canvass, and when he was not there, there were other adherents of the Jehovists' teaching.
"Was anything said at meetings about opposition to the government?" the prosecutor asked.
"It was said that the state and government are the domain of Satan. But one should not dispute with them; it is necessary to obey the laws. But at the same time they violated them," the witness laughed.
"Did you say something about Satan," Judge Aleksei Rudnev specified.
"I said that the state is from Satan," the woman answered. "But Dennis said that we are law-abiding. Melnik also said that we are awaiting the last days and soon the state will fall and Jehovah will be the ruler. Only those who are united with Jehovah's Witnesses will be saved."
Soon after the defense side began posing question it was clarified that everything that the witness had said pertained to the period when the Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel still had not been banned. She stopped attending meetings in early December 2015, that is, six months before the prohibition of the religious society by the district court. When attorney Anton Bogdanov asked the witness whether she calls herself a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel organization because of the fact that she attended meeting, the woman answered directly: "No."
Third Day
On 25 April only one witness appeared in court, Galina Romanova, who is herself an adherent of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. The pensioner described how she has attended meetings of the Jehovists for more than ten years now. It all began when she met on the street an adherent of this religion and agreed to study the Bible with them. Romanova described how in the building on Zheleznodorozhnaia Street everybody may enter. At the entrance, a brother met parishioners.
"What does brother mean" the judge asked.
"We call ourselves brothers and sisters," the witness replied.
The woman also described how people at the meetings prayed to God and sang songs.
"To which god?" the state prosecutor immediately asked a clarifying question.
"The one God," the woman replied, "Jehovah."
She explained that parishioners studied the Bible "in which there are all laws," and they made donations only as they wished. The woman said that money from donations went for paying for utilities, and buying cleaning products to tend Kingdom Hall.
"Have you heard about the prohibition of the Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel organization?" the state prosecutor asked.
"Nobody has prohibited Jehovah's Witnesses," the elderly woman responded.
It was obvious that she had difficulty understanding questions posed to her because she understands Jehovah's Witnesses not as some kind of association but as personal faith. For her, it was all the same to ask: are you a member, for example, of the Liven diocese, and she would answer, "No, I am Orthodox." Such ambiguity and different understanding of terminology was maintained throughout the whole questioning of Romanova.
The woman did not know why Christensen had been arrested, but she ceased attending meetings because the last time "people with clubs" came there and "they checked documents and copied down everything." In addition, she heard "from sisters" that Kingdom Hall was closed. The woman also described how she underwent the ritual of baptism, at a congress of the Jehovah's Witnesses that was held in the premises of GRINN in Orel.
"Do you consider that Christensen is the head Jehovah's Witnesses in Orel?" attorney Zhenkov asked the woman.
"The brothers are all equal and there are no higher or lower," came the answer.
The witness said that she had never heard from Christensen that he spoke disparagingly about other religions and people professing them.
After the questioning of the witness by both sides, the prosecutor's office asked the court to publish her testimony given during the questioning in the investigation stage. The reason: "because of the contradictions with almost every one of the points." When the judge began reading the record of the questioning it became clear that during it the witness had said that in the Kingdom Hall there are elders and Christensen himself is one of the Jehovah's Witnesses and that parishioners were asked to use some of the literature by means of tablets and computers. Also in the record it is said that the witness said that adherents of the teaching arranged door-to-door visits after preliminary instruction and also that the woman was aware of the court decision banning the religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses of Orel.
"Many of the words [recorded in the report], I did not say them," the woman explained, after the presiding judge finished reading excerpts from the document. But later the witness confirmed much of the report, only in other words. Many of the court's questions pertained to the course of meetings. Judge Aleksei Rudnev tried for a long time to understand how it was that adherents of the religious of Jehovah's Witnesses study and discuss texts of brochures and also why the witness herself opposed blood transfusion and donation. A lawyer had to intervene.
"Your honor, I think the tactic of questioning you have chosen is incorrect. You want the witness to persuade you of something in the wording that you want. But the task of the court is to receive from a witness answers to questions on the merits of the case. For a whole hour you have questioned the witness about one and the same thing, wishing that she will persuade you of something," the lawyer stated.
"And nevertheless, how according to the teaching, why is it recommended not to donate blood?" the presiding judge still decided to seek an answer.
"It is hard to converse with you," the witness sighed. "Apparently I understand the teaching badly."
The last questions came for the witness from the prosecutor. The side of the state prosecutor wanted to know whether Dennis Christenen led meetings in 2017. "Probably yes," the woman answered. "One or two times." The lawyers asked the clerk of the court to enter into the record the word "probably."
Then the judge posed the clarifying question: "Did you ever see Christensen at meetings in 2017?"
"I did," the answer came.
Attorney Viktor Zhenkov asked in his turn: "Did the meetings that were held have anything to do with the organization that was prohibited by the court?"
"They did not," the witness averred.
At this the hearings for today ended. They will resume after the May holidays. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 April 2018)
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