COURT
RULES COUPLE
HAS RIGHT TO PROFESS FAITH OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND RETURNS
CASE TO
PROSECUTOR BECAUSE OF UNSUBSTANTIATED CHARGES
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 1 October 2019
On 25
September
2019, the Sverdlovsk district court of Kostroma returned a
criminal case
against a married couple, Valeria and Sergei Raiman, to the
Kostroma
prosecutor's office. At the same time, the court emphasized that
in the case of
the spouses "there exists the legal right to profess the
religion of
Jehovah's Witnesses, which [i.e. the religion—tr.] has not been
prohibited."
Valeria
and Sergei
Raiman are accused of continuing the activity of the local
religious
organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, which [i.e., the
organization—tr.] has
been prohibited by a decision of the Supreme Court. However, on
25 September,
the Kostroma court pointed out the "vague" wording of the
indictment.
Neither in the materials of the criminal case, nor in the
register of legal
entities, nor in any other documents is there a confirmation
that the young
couple were founders or members of the local religious
organization in
Kostroma.
The
indictment,
without substantiation, indicates that the Raiman couple
conducted meetings of
the religious organization, but at the same time it does not
cite a single name
of participants in such meetings, to which the believers'
defense attorneys
called attention. It also is not indicated in the indictment
what were the
consequences of the Raiman couple's actions and the means of
committing a
"crime."
The
court did not
find in the documents of the investigation evidence of the
intent to commit a
crime. At the same time, the court cited the order of the plenum
of the Russian
Supreme Court of 28 June 2011, "On legal practice in cases of
crimes of an
extremist nature," which clearly states: "The crime identified
by
article 282 of the Criminal Code of the RF, is committed only by
means of
direct intent and with the goal of inciting hatred or strife and
also of degrading
the dignity of a person or group of persons on the basis of sex,
race,
nationality, language, descent, attitude toward religion, or
affiliation with
some social group."
The
court indicated
that "in this case there exists a legal right to profess the
religion of
Jehovah's Witnesses, which was not prohibited by the decision of
the Russian Supreme
Court of 20 April 2017." "And also that the Russian Supreme
Court, in
its decisions, has often indicated that profession of the
religion of Jehovah's
Witnesses on the territory of the RF has not been forbidden by
law and they are
not denied the possibility of independently conducting religious
rituals,"
the court's order states; it has not yet taken legal effect.
Despite
such a
position, the court left Valeria and Sergei Raiman under
restriction of a
signed pledge not to depart from their place of residence. The
couple is still
facing up to ten years in prison.
The
nightmare began
for the young family early in the morning of 25 July 2018, when
during a series
of searches in Kostroma, armed special forces, using crowbars,
broke down the
door of their apartment. After a search, the couple was
arrested. Valeria was
detained for two days and for another 179 days she was under a
prohibition of
specific actions. Sergei spent 59 days in custody, some of this
time in a
narrow isolation cell, and then 30 days under house arrest and
another 90 days
under a prohibition of specific actions. In all of this time, it
was impossible
for the couple to conduct a fully normal form of life, including
communication
with one another.
The
religion of the
Jehovah's Witnesses really has not been banned in Russia. (tr.
by PDS, posted 1
October 2019)
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