APPELLATE
COURT
FINDS VIOLATIONS AND DISCRIMINATION IN CASE OF DMITRY KUZIN IN
KALUGA
It will
be
considered by a court of a new composition.
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 19 September 2019
On 9
September 2019,
the Kaluga oblast court granted the appeal of Dmitry Kuzin
against his measure
of restriction and it quashed the decision of the court of the
prior instance
because of gross violations and a prejudicial attitude on the
part of the judge.
The case was remanded for review with a change of the judge and
the believer
may leave the SIZO in four days.
On 26
June 2019, a
criminal case was opened against Kaluga resident Dmitry Kuzin
based on part 1
of article 282.2 of the CC RF (arranging the activity of an
extremist
organization) in connection with his religious confession as a
Jehovah's
Witness. He was placed in custody. On 19 August an investigator
sent to a
Kaluga district court a petition for extending the term of
Kuzin's detention in
custody for yet another two months. On 26 August, a district
court granted this
petition and the defendant appealed its decision in oblast
court.
Judge
Svetlana
Anatolievna Prokofieva of the Kaluga oblast court reviewed this
appeal on 9
September and ordered to quash the decision of the district
court of 26 August
and to reduce the term of Kuzin's detention in custody to 23
September and to
remand the petition of the senior investigator of the
investigation department
of the directorate of the Russian F.S.B. for a new review in the
same court,
but with a different composition,.
Although
the believe
remains in custody, albeit for a shortened term, an important
result of the
appeal was the acknowledgment of "substantive violation of the
criminal
procedural law," according to the text of the order. Thus Judge
Prokofieva
called attention to the fact that the lower court did not permit
the believers
to defend himself by citing his own religious convictions and it
actually
demeaned him.
After
studying the
protocol of the previous ruling, the judge of the oblast court
pointed out the
phrase of the judge of the lower court addressed to Kuzin: "You
are not a
prisoner of conscience and you have nothing to do with the first
Christians.
You should not speculate on this and you are not going to be
summoned to
gladiator fights. Indeed, as a follower of Jehovah you also
provoke many
questions." Judge Prokofieva noted in her conclusion: "With such
information, it is impossible to speak of the objectivity of the
presiding
judge." She concluded that this is evidence of the interest of
the
presiding judge in the outcome of the case and of the illegality
of the
composition of the court.
As a
result, the
petition for the extension of Kuzin's detention in custody must
be sent to a
Kaluga district court of a new composition for review. The
believer is pleased
that, although it is on a case by case basis, prejudice against
Jehovah's
Witnesses in Russian courts is getting the proper legal
evaluation. (tr. by
PDS, posted 19 September 2019)
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