The court fined the pastor who read the Bible 30 thousand rubles

The Khostinsky District Court of Sochi has fined Aleksey Kolyasnikov, leader of the Community of Christians religious group, 30,000 rubles for reading the Bible in a cafe. It is reported by "Newspaper. Ru” with reference to the pastor’s lawyer Alexander Popkov.

The judge agreed with the decision of the magistrate, who had previously found Kolyasnikov guilty of organizing a public event without filing a notice of its holding (Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

Kolyasnikova’s lawyer said: “The first witness of the Bible reading without notification of the organization of a public event in court admitted that it was not by chance that she came just to eat at this cafe, as she claimed earlier, she had been here before at a similar Kolyasnikova event and knew that the pastor would read the Bible. The second witness, who said that he allegedly accidentally got into this cafe, turned out to be a former law enforcement officer. Classics of the genre. And the FSB officer, who was summoned twice, never appeared in court. And despite the fact that there is clearly no element of an administrative offense in Kolyasnikov’s actions, the court sided with the prosecutor’s office and the FSB, which initiated this case.”

On October 10, 2014, Nikolai Volkov, Justice of the Peace of Court District No. 99 of the Khostinsky District of Sochi, found Kolyasnikov guilty of organizing a public event. On December 2, 2014, the Khostinsky District Court overturned the decision of the justice of the peace and sent the case back for a new trial.

According to Alexei Kolyasnikov himself, on the evening of September 28, he and members of his religious Christian group held classes in the closed premises of the Bel Canto cafe, which was specially rented from the owner for this event, in which case, according to Kolyasnikov, no agreement is required by law.