RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Judge rules case against Jehovah's Witnesses too imprecise

COURT RETURNS CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST 6 BELIEVERS FROM ORENBURG TO PROSECUTOR. TWO SPENT ALMOST 3 MONTHS IN SIZO

Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 23 January 2020

 

On 14 January 2020, Judge Tatiana Gorbacheva, of the Promyshlenyi district court of Orenburg, returned the criminal case against 6 believers to the prosecutor's office because of the imprecise nature of the indictment and the absence of motives and goals of the alleged commission of a crime.

 

In its order, the court noted that "in the indictment presented, the motives and goals of the commission of a crime should be indicated," which is not done. Also the court called attention to the fact that the indictment does not indicate just how the accused Logunov and Suvorov "coordinated the activity of the Orenburg local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, . . . or cleared and coordinated their actions in leading the Orenburg local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses with a higher organization, or received religious literature, including some with extremist contents, from the religious organization of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia." It notes that from the indictment it is often unclear just which actions were done by Logunov and which by Suvorov.

 

The criminal case against Vladimir Kochnev, Alexander Suvorov, Vladislav Kolbanov, Pavel Lekontsev, Sergei Logunov, Aleksei Matveev, and Nikolai Zhugin was opened on 14 May 2018, after which Kochnev and Suvorov were thrown into a SIZO for 78 days. In October 2019, the investigation decided to change the articles of the indictment. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 January 2020)

 
Background articles:
Dozen Jehovah's Witnesses face charges in Orenburg
October 16, 2018

Courts ease up a little on conditions for Jehovah's Witnesses
August 13, 20189

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