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Criminal trial

June 2018. Review of the hearing in the case of a Danish believer in Oryol

Oryol Region

In June 2018, 5 court hearings were held on June 4, 5, 6, 13 and 14, 2018. During this time, two witnesses were questioned, the rest of the days were devoted to the study of the recordings of the secret video recording of the services that took place on February 19 and 26, 2017, as well as the written materials of the case, on which the prosecution relies.

On June 4, 2018, a secret witness was questioned in court for 6 hours in an open session, whose face was not visible and whose voice was changed. The speech of the secret witness was well choreographed, at the level of a university teacher. He was easily oriented in religious specifics. It seemed as if the answers had been verified by the state prosecution. Answering all the prosecutor's questions, the witness tried to point out the "special" role of Christensen, who, according to him, is the most important among Jehovah's Witnesses in Oryol and the Oryol region. The witness reported that he had attended Jehovah's Witnesses worship services about 10 times. He was forced to admit that all these events were peaceful and did not pose any threat to him and others: believers sang songs praising God, said prayers, listened to Bible speeches and discussed the Bible with questions and answers. He also shared his impressions of Jehovah's Witnesses: they maintain "normal, working relations with the state, but do not serve in the armed forces."

Dennis Christensen said in the courtroom that this secret witness is Oleg Kurdyumov. It is known that Oleg Gennadievich Kurdyumov is a lecturer at the Department of Humanities and Natural Sciences of Oryol State University, a graduate of the Department of Religious Studies and Theology, a specialist in the field of near-Orthodox heresies. A secret witness recounted a number of fables about Jehovah's Witnesses. For example, he stated that Jehovah's Witnesses allegedly break off relations with relatives if they profess a different religion, otherwise believers and relatives will go to hell. (Jehovah's Witnesses do not have such beliefs.) When asked by lawyers where the witness got such knowledge, he referred to Wikipedia.

The secret witness did not answer all questions willingly. For example, in response to a question from the prosecutor's office, a witness stated that only "his own" could attend meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses, and the entrance was closed to outsiders. The defense asked how he himself got to the services, but the witness began to answer evasively. During the interrogation, he actively used Article 51 of the Constitution, choosing which questions he should answer and which not. For example, there is operational-search material in the case - an audio recording of a conversation that took place on May 16, 2017 between Christensen and Kurdyumov in the Oryol café "Country Chicken". When the secret witness was asked if he had met Christensen at the café, the witness refused to answer because "it could reveal [his] identity."

On June 6, 2018 , a new witness, 55-year-old Sergey Filippov, was questioned, who explained that he had been baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine 13 years earlier. But in 2014, due to hostilities in the Donbass, where he lived with his large family, he was forced to move to Russia. After settling in Oryol, he was surprised to find that Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia did not have religious literature, since the customs authorities had banned its import into Russia. He regularly attended Jehovah's Witnesses services in Oryol, and there were no signs of extremism in them. The worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses are held peacefully according to the same routine throughout the world.

On June 5, 13 and 14, the trial was held behind closed doors, as video recordings of worship services that took place on February 19 and 26, 2017 and were secretly recorded on the instructions of the FSB Directorate for the Oryol Region were examined.

The next court hearing is scheduled for July 2, 2018.

Case of Christensen in Oryol

Case History
Dennis Christensen is the first Jehovah’s Witness in modern Russia to be imprisoned only because of his faith. He was arrested in May 2017. The FSB accused the believer of organizing the activities of a banned organization on the basis of the testimony of a secret witness, theologian Oleg Kurdyumov from a local university, who kept covert audio and video recordings of conversations with Christensen about faith. There are no extremist statements or victims in the case. In 2019, the court sentenced Christensen to 6 years in prison. The believer was serving time in the Lgov colony. He repeatedly asked for the replacement of part of the unserved term with a fine. For the first time, the court granted the request, but the prosecutor’s office appealed this decision, and the prison administration threw the believer into a punishment cell on trumped-up charges. Christensen developed illnesses that prevented him from working in prison. On May 24, 2022, the believer was released after serving his sentence and was immediately deported to his homeland, Denmark.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Oryol Region
Locality:
Oryol
Suspected of:
according to the investigation, together with the others he conducted religious services, which is interpreted as “organising the activity of an extremist organisation” (with reference to the court’s decision on the liquidation of the local organisation of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Court case number:
11707540001500164
Initiated:
May 23, 2017
Current case stage:
The verdict entered into force
Investigating:
UFSB of Russia in the Oryol region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-37/1
[i18n] Рассмотрено судом первой инстанции:
Железнодорожный районный суд г. Орла
Judge:
Алексей Николаевич Руднев
[i18n] Суд апелляционной инстанции:
Орловский областной суд
[i18n] Суд апелляционной инстанции:
Льговский райсуд Курской области
Case History