DEFENSE
CHALLENGES
FINE FOR DISTRIBUTING BIBLES ON TERRITORY OF RADIO ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY IN
RIAZAN
SOVA Center
for News
and Analysis, 18 November 2019
In
Riazan, a
municipal court fined Oleg Alekseevich K. for "illegal"
missionary
activity. The defense filed an appeal in the October district
court of Riazan.
On 15
November 2019,
it became known that on 1 November 2019, in Riazan, a municipal
court of
judicial district No. 18 fined Oleg Alekseevich K. 5,000 rubles
on the basis of
part 4 of article 5.26 of the Criminal Code of Administrative
Violations of Law
(conducting missionary activity in violation of the requirements
of legislation
on freedom of conscience and freedom of religious confession and
on religious
associations).
The
charging document
concerning violation of law was composed on 23 September 2019 by
officers of the
Riazan police. According to the charging document, "at 12:00
noon, at the
entrance to the territory of Riazan State Radio Engineering
University [Oleg
K.] conducted missionary activity in the name of the 'Gideons'
association of
Evangelical Christians in violation of the procedure provided
for by article
24.2 of the federal law 'On freedom of conscience and religious
association,'
in particular he presented to a young man the book 'New
Testament and
Psalter.'"
At the
police
department, Oleg K. wrote that "I did not draw anybody into a
specific
religious organization of 'Gideons' Evangelical Christians or
into a religious
group of 'Gideons,' since such organizations do not exist on the
territory of
Riazan and Riazan oblast."
In the
opinion of
Oleg K.'s attorney, "giving to passers-by the book 'New
Testament' without
informing them about the activity of a specific religious
organization, its
doctrine, or the conditions and times of attending worship
services, or without
drawing them into a specific religious organization, is not
missionary
activity." However, attorney A. Pchelintsev clarified: "even if
K.
conducted missionary activity, he has a right to do so: he
possessed two
properly worded authorizations—one for work in prisons and
hospitals, and
another for conducting missionary activity."
The
defense filed an
appeal in the October district court of Riazan.
"Such a
broad
interpretation of the concept of missionary activity that was
applied by the
municipal judge in the current case," the attorney explains,
"permits
classifying any action of an individual for dissemination of
religious
information and literature as illegal missionary activity, which
creates a
dangerous precedent for infringing the legal rights and
liberties of believers
and serves as a basis for bring people to administrative
accountability without
rational basis." (tr, by PDS, posted 18 November 2019)
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