The ECHR communicated the complaint of Dennis Christensen

A citizen of Denmark is appealing the arrest to the ECtHR.

In November 2017, we learned that on September 4, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated the complaint of Danish citizen Dennis Ole Christensen, accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization - the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orel (part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) and placed under arrest.

Christensen was arrested on May 25, 2017 and taken into custody the next day. In a complaint filed with the ECtHR, he stated that he considered the arrest and possible conviction as an unlawful, unjustified and disproportionate interference with his right to practice religion in community with others, and that he was the target of discrimination on the basis of religion. He also noted that the Russian courts had failed to provide relevant and sufficient grounds for his arrest.

The ECtHR asked Russia to clarify whether there had been a violation of Art. 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting the freedom of conscience, by itself or in conjunction with Art. 14 of the Convention, which prohibits discrimination. In addition, the Russian side will have to answer the question of whether the arrest was based on relevant and sufficient grounds.

We consider the persecution of Christensen unlawful. The local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orel was declared extremist in 2016, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld this decision of the regional court. However, we believe that the liquidation of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses for extremism, the persecution of members of their communities and the banning of texts have no legal basis at all and are a clear manifestation of religious discrimination.

On May 15, 2018, the Kingdom of Denmark sent an application to the ECtHR to intervene in the case of Christensen v. Russia as a third party.

Sources

• Application no. 39417/17. Dennis Ole CHRISTENSEN against Russia. Lodged on 2 June 2017 // Website of the ECtHR. 2017. September 4.
• Report of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. May 29, 2018