Voronezh Regional Court found that the Orthodox prayer service at the school did not violate anyone's rights

In the Voronezh region, they continue to discuss the incident that occurred in September 2007 with first -grader David Purov, today Radio Liberty reports.

Recall that the seven -year -old boy from the Pastor of the Protestant community "The Commonwealth of Christ" before the first lesson in his life was a participant in the worship - the consecration of the class - and the prayer service, which was committed by the student of the student of the same class, the priest of the Voronezh diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexander Muravyev. As it turned out later, this was done at the request of the parents of the students. At the same time, no one has informed the feather family of the pen of the upcoming event. Moreover, as David himself told, classmates pushed him to the cross so that he kissed him.

The prosecutor’s office in response to the complaint of the parents of the first -grader issued the order: the constitutional rights of the student to freedom of conscience and the law "On Education" were violated. All this allowed the parents of David Perov to apply to the court with a lawsuit against the school of compensation for non -pecuniary damage.

In December last year, the Gribanovsky District Court did not agree with the prosecutor’s office and refused the pen at all points of their application. The day before, the Voronezh Regional Court confirmed the same position, which examined the cassation appeal of David's parents.

The course of the process and its results for Radio Liberty commented on representatives of both parties.

Olga Gnezdilova, legal adviser to the Voronezh/Chernozemye interregional human rights group, who represented the interests of the penalty family, believes that her client’s rights have been violated and the case has prospects to get into the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

"Both courts decided: the fact of holding a religious rite without taking into account the opinions of parents does not violate anyone's rights - neither parents nor a child. In addition, both the district and the regional court admitted that the article is the fifth law" On Education ", which states that the activities of religious organizations in the territory of the school were prohibited is also not violated. Meanwhile, any similar measures should be carried out with the consent of the children and the signed statements of parents. He pointed out that the event took place 10 minutes before the start of the lesson - which means that the legislation on education to this situation is supposedly does not apply, ”the human rights activist says.

According to Olga Gnezdilova, the court also did not consider proven the fact of coercion of the student to participate in a religious event.

“It was said that there was no physical coercion. But coercion could not always be physical,” she explains.

"We insisted that the child was in a dependent position. In a closed room, in the classroom where the door was closed. Where was the teacher who planted the children for the desks, introduced the priest, and the priest began his ceremony, without explaining what would happen now. Therefore, the child had no physical opportunity to refuse. Nobody asked him before the rite began: who wants to participate, whoever wants to be attended?" ... The rite began, the child was obedient, the boy ran out of class and hid under the stairs.

An appeal for the European Court of Human Rights will be drawn up in the next two months. The prospect that the complaint will be considered only after a few years, David Perov does not stop parents.

It should be noted that Russia by the defendant in the case of the duress of children to participate in worship has never acted. However, for Strasbourg such affairs are by no means a novelty. So, in the "Foil against Norway", it was about the impossibility for a number of children to refuse to attend Christian lessons; The state lost in this matter.

The interests of the Orthodox priest who committed a religious ceremony was defended by a member of the lawyer chamber of the Moscow Region Alexander Korelov, who does not see any violations in what happened.

“It was not even a rite, it was a joint prayer, it is the rank of consecration of the class when the priest, along with his parishioners, prays along with Orthodox people. This rank of consecration is not directed directly at people. What is terrible if, without hovering the activities of a state institution, people send their own religious needs. In this situation, no one has violated no one to change their activities. Belief, ”the lawyer claims.

Alexander Korelov appealed to the fact that the initiative of the parents who invited the Orthodox priest could not be prohibited: "It was the initiative of the parents-not schools. Accordingly, the school was not obliged to warn parents about such an event. The child was simply present in the performance of the rite. This is the tradition of our Russia, the tradition of religion, and our multinational country was built and built."

With such an interpretation of the traditions of the country, the boy’s father, the Protestant pastor of the Church "The Commonwealth of Christ" Alexei Perov, disagrees.

"We are not Orthodox-it means that we are citizens of the second grade. When we sued, there was still some hope. We hoped that we still have a secular state, freedom of conscience ... The person went to the first grade, for the first time in his life, and this happened to him. The prosecutor’s office recognized the school, Rono itself. And in the end we would not understand, in which state we would not understand in which state. We live - in secular or not, ”says the pastor.

Now David Perov goes to the same school (there is no other nearby), but immediately after the incident he was transferred to another class. According to Alexei Perov, "everything is in principle good, but David feels that there is some kind of antagonism in relation to him. The village is small, there was a lot of noise, the court ..."

Alexei Perov also said that the further career of the priest Alexander Muravyov, who consecrated the class, did not work out in the best way: “This priest has now been transferred from us to another place, to the village of Vysokoye, where they live mostly subbotniks - Russian people professing Judaism. There, it turns out, the Orthodox priest was in the minority - as well as we are among the Orthodox. In his own way he set everything up. "