"NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THE CHARGE"--ATTORNEY
In Orel, Jehovah's Witness Dennis Christensen is being tried "because he read the Bible"
by Alena Posadskaia
On 30 May, the trial of the case of Danish citizen and Jehovah's Witness Dennis Christensen continued in the court of Zheleznodorozhny district of Orel. The court planned to question a secret operative of the F.S.B., but this turned out to be technologically impossible. Christensen was sent back to the investigation cell. He has been in custody for more than a year on a charge of participating in the activity of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses*, which in Russia has been ruled to be extremist and is forbidden. Reporting from courtroom and details of this case are in an article of a "7x7" correspondent.
"Try speaking by syllables!"
The judicial session on 30 May began with the questioning of an operational agent of the F.S.B. under the pseudonym Aleksei Petrovich Ermolov, while neither the citizens present in the courtroom, nor lawyers, now the defendant himself was supposed to see him and hear his natural voice. A prosecutor, who refused to identify herself for the "7x7" correspondent, explained: previously this kind of witness was questioned with a bag on the head and guarded by a dog, but now all this has been replaced by technology. Special equipment was brought into the courtroom and the witness was locked somewhere in a different room of the courthouse—Judge Aleksei Rudnev displayed to everybody the key to that room. However the technology failed. From the dynamics came an indistinct robotic speech of the witness, which neither the secretary of the court, nor the judge, nor the attorneys, nor the audience could understand.
"Try speaking in syllables!" Judge Rudnev suggested to the invisible Ermolov.
He tried, but his speech did not become clearer. In the final analysis the judge declared: "One has to have no respect for oneself to conduce such a trial," and he terminated the session, declaring that the questioning of the witness was postponed until Monday 4 June, and different equipment will be brought in for this.
"Eliminate public dissemination of information"
Before the questioning of Ermolov, a lawyer for the state prosecution asked the judge "to orient the representatives of the mass media who are present in the trial and to eliminate the public dissemination of information and its publication with a detailed presentation of the course of the judicial proceedings, assessments, evidence, and discussion about them," because this supposedly "grossly violates the principle of the adversarial nature of the sides and does not permit the assurance by the prosecution of the presentation of evidence and the observance of the procedure of objective questioning of witnesses."
Christensen and his attorneys spoke against granting this petition, viewing in the request a violation of the law "On media of mass communication" and the position of the European Court of Human Rights. Judge Aleksei Rudnev agreed with the opinion of the defense and the defendant, and he refused to grant the petition, calling the attention of the attorney for the prosecution to the fact that he had not provided cases of the misuse of freedom of speech by representatives of the news media.
Political prisoner
The Dane Dennis Christensen has lived in Orel [pronounced "ar-YOL"] for more than ten years. He was arrested on 25 May 2017 and charged with continuing the activity of the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses* of Orel, which has been ruled to be extremist and prohibited in Russia. According to the account of the investigation, Dennis Christensen conducted worship services, collected donations, transferred money to the account of the head office of the Jehovists, distributed religious literature, and engaged in the development of a prohibited organization. In July 2017, the rights advocacy organization "Memorial" recognized Christensen as a political prisoner. Rights advocates think that the charges were placed against him "only on the basis that he is a Jehovah's Witnesses believer," and thus these charges "are discriminatory and they violate international legal acts, specifically, the right to freedom of religious confession." "Memorial" demanded "to terminate immediately the prosecution of Dennis Christensen and other Jehovah's Witnesses, who are being subjected to prosecution for their religious affiliation."
Despite the protests of rights advocates, Christensen has been held in custody for a year now. He himself thinks this is without basis and illegal. In June 2017 he filed an appeal in the E.C.H.R. and asked for a consideration of the case on an expedited basis. On 4 September 2017, the E.C.H.R. found the appeal to be acceptable and it sent questions regarding the circumstances of the case to the government of Russia.
"It is impossible to call such a thing legal"
Christensen's interests in the court of the Zheleznodorozhny district of the city of Orel are represented by three lawyers—from St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, and Kursk. Before the start of the trial a "7x7" correspondent met with an attorney from the Advocates' Chamber of St. Petersburg, Viktor Zhenkov, and posed several questions to him.
"What is your client accused of?"
"Actually, no one understands the charge. In 2016 the Orel oblast court liquidated the legal entity, the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses* of the city of Orel. But at the same time, it did not prohibit the religion of the Jehovah's Witnesses and did not restrict the right of citizens to profess their religion and to share their convictions with other people. Nevertheless, in May 2017, Mr. Christensen was arrested merely for the fact that he remained a Jehovah's Witness after the ban of the local religious organization; that is, he did not renounce his convictions and he continued to profess his religion, just as do probably thousands of citizens of the Russian Federation. Since then he has been in custody and he is waiting for a sentence essentially because he read the Bible. This is the first case in modern Russia where a believer was confined in custody for his faith."
"And what is the activity of the organization—after all the charter defines it? How does the prosecution understand this?"
"We have studied the charter, and it says that foreign citizen do not have any right to be members of a local religious organization."
"That is, Christensen was not even a member of the local organization?"
"He was not. He is simply a believing person. And the witnesses who have been questioned in the trial say only that they saw Christensen at the services and they saw how he removed snow outside before the start of services and how he met other people and greeted them—that is everything so far."
"Did he conduct worship services?"
"We are still studying the evidence. But I wish to say that when the Russian Supreme Court considered the appeal of the local religious organization against the decision of the Orel oblast court, that found it to be extremist, it issued an appellate determination in which, to be sure, it left the oblast court's decision in force, but at the same time it pointed out that this decision does not affect in any way believers and those people who were members of this organization. It is clearly stated there that these citizens have the right, as before, to conduct religious rituals. That is, even if a person conducts religious rituals, this is not a violation of the law since nobody has rescinded article 28 of the Russian constitution, which speaks this way: 'To everybody is guaranteed freedom of conscience, freedom of religious confession, including the right to confess individually or jointly with others any religion or not to confess any, and to choose, hold, and disseminate religious and other convictions and to act in accordance with them.' Therefore, what is today happening in Orel in the court of the Zheleznodorozhny district is nonsense; it is improper, and we expect nevertheless that the court will listen to us and issue a verdict of acquittal."
"If the court does not issue a verdict of acquittal for Christensen, what punishment can he expect?"
"He faces up to ten years incarceration. Merely for the fact that a person read the Bible. It is impossible to call such a thing legal."
"Do you and the prosecution interpret the law differently, or in your view is there simply a political component in this case?"
"I declared directly in court that this is genocide. In the Russian Federation a campaign of persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses is going on, and its goal is very simple: that people either refuse to be Jehovah's Witnesses or they leave the country, which unfortunately is happening now. After all, the Jehovah's Witnesses* have been operating officially since the 1990s, they had registration, the government studied their doctrine before registering them, and it agreed that the doctrine is not dangerous."
"He does not understand why he is there"
The trial has evoked interest in many followers of Jehovah's Witnesses*; on 30 May believers from Belorussia and St. Petersburg came to support Dennis Christensen. The courtroom was filled and, as the arrivals explained, there would be yet more of them if the room were more accommodating.
"This is very important for us," the wife of the defendant, Irina Christensen, told a "7x7" correspondent. "It would be very difficult without support. Both for me and for him. Two visits a month; that's nothing. We sit approximately two meters from one another, not even having the possibility of touching each other, and we talk on a telephone. Two panes of glass, bars, and a passage between us. That is, in the courtroom we even are closer to one another. But the most difficult thing is the confinement. To realize that you are there unjustly. You have done nothing blameworthy that you should be among criminals. It is very hard. He does not understand why he is there. Originally he even asked the judge: explain to me why I am here. I do not understand what is my extremism and what I am accused of."
Irina Christensen does not guess what is ahead, how the trial will end. "The lawyers are working, but the judge decides." At the same time she said that the difficult situation had drawn Jehovah's Witnesses together. Nobody had renounced the faith. As regards Dennis Christensen himself, in court he was calm and smiling. During breaks, in the narrow "aquarium" he described how he has received very many letters—in May they brought around a hundred. Adults and children write. He collects letters and drawings in files and decorates the cell this way. So that in the SIZO he, in the direct sense of the word, is surrounded by people supporting him.
In Russia, active Jehovah's Witnesses number 175 thousand. In 2017 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled the organization "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" and all of its 395 local organizations to be extremist and it prohibited their activity on the territory of Russia.
In the Russian empire, the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses* was officially registered on 24 September 1913. In soviet times Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted. In 1949 and 1951 they were exiled, along with their families, to Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Far East. The major exile of Jehovists to Siberia was the operation "North," when in two days (1-2 April 1951) thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses and their families were taken to Siberia. Subsequently they were completely rehabilitated and recognized as victims of political repressions.
*The Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia ("Jehovah's Witnesses") is an extremist organization, forbidden on the territory of Russia.
(tr. by PDS, posted 2 June 2018)
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