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A Russian district court in Oryol on Wednesday found a Danish Jehovah’s Witness guilty of organizing the activity of an extremist organization and sentenced him to six years in prison.
The 46-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, Dennis Christensen, was detained by armed police during a police raid on a local prayer meeting he was leading in May 2017. Christensen argued that he was exercising freedom of religion guaranteed in Russia’s constitution. During the trial, the court barred Christensen’s defense from including questions about a secret witness’s identity, even though they might have been material to challenging the witness’s testimony.
Under article 282.2(1) of the Russian Criminal Code, it is illegal to “organize activities of a religious organization that has been declared extremist.” Prior to this case, the Russian Supreme Court ruled Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization in 2017. The court therefore charged Christensen with “actively involved in organizational work aimed at continuing the unlawful activities of the banned Orel Jehovah’s Witness organization.”
As a member of the Council of Europe and a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, Russia is obligated to protect the rights to freedom of religion and association. Nevertheless, Russia has previously been held by the European Court of Human Rights to be in violation of the European Convention for actions taken through the courts to dissolve communities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Christensen has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights alleging that his arrest constitutes unlawful interference with his right to freedom of religion and it’s a serious violation of human rights.
The Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” by the sentencing and called on Russia to respect freedom of religion.
The post Russia court sentences Danish Jehovah’s Witness to 6 years for extremism appeared first on JURIST - News - Legal News & Commentary.
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The 46-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, Dennis Christensen, was detained by armed police during a police raid on a local prayer meeting he was leading in May 2017. Christensen argued that he was exercising freedom of religion guaranteed in Russia’s constitution. During the trial, the court barred Christensen’s defense from including questions about a secret witness’s identity, even though they might have been material to challenging the witness’s testimony.
Under article 282.2(1) of the Russian Criminal Code, it is illegal to “organize activities of a religious organization that has been declared extremist.” Prior to this case, the Russian Supreme Court ruled Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization in 2017. The court therefore charged Christensen with “actively involved in organizational work aimed at continuing the unlawful activities of the banned Orel Jehovah’s Witness organization.”
As a member of the Council of Europe and a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, Russia is obligated to protect the rights to freedom of religion and association. Nevertheless, Russia has previously been held by the European Court of Human Rights to be in violation of the European Convention for actions taken through the courts to dissolve communities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Christensen has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights alleging that his arrest constitutes unlawful interference with his right to freedom of religion and it’s a serious violation of human rights.
The Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” by the sentencing and called on Russia to respect freedom of religion.
The post Russia court sentences Danish Jehovah’s Witness to 6 years for extremism appeared first on JURIST - News - Legal News & Commentary.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.