A citizen of Denmark was the first convicted in Russia for participating in the activities of “Jehovah's Witnesses”. The accusations were brought by 115 Russians

A member of the Jehovah's Witnesses community from Denmark lived in Russia for 20 years. He was arrested in Orel - and called the leader of the prohibited organization

46-year-old Dennis Kristensen-from Copenhagen, at the age of 17 he received baptism in the Church of “Jehovah's Witnesses”. In 1995 he arrived in St. Petersburg, was a volunteer during the construction of the buildings of Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1999, Kristensen moved to Murmansk, where he met a local girl Irina, in 2002 they got married, in 2006 moved to an eagle. Officially, Kristensen did not work, worked on construction sites and at the same time participated in the life of the local community of “Jehovah's Witnesses”.

In 2016, the Oryol Court recognized the community with an extremist organization, and in April 2017, all the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia were recognized as extremist. The Supreme Court liquidated all legal entities of the organization and banned its activities in the territory of the Russian Federation. Despite this, in many regions of Russia, “witnesses” continued to arrange unofficial joint services. In the eagle where Kristensen lives, they also passed.

On the evening of May 25, 2017, during a worship in the Malland House - a private house on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street - a detachment of riot police burst. The search lasted until five in the morning of the next day. There were about a hundred people at the worship, but they detained alone Kristensen - calling him the leader of the local community. A criminal case was brought against him, accused of extremism and imprisoned in a pre -trial detention center.

The wives of the “Jehovah's Witnesses” pursued for extremism complained to the Presidential Council for Human Rights. Putin called the persecution of "nonsense." Kristensen was given six years

In June 2018, Irina Kristensen and six more wives arrested in different regions for extremism of the members of Jehovah's Witnesses sent a letter to the Presidential Rights Council, where they said that persecution of members of the organization was systemic. They studied the appeal and came to the conclusion that the Supreme Court banned the activities of specific organizations and legal entities, but the decision did not say that the self -promotion of “Jehovah's Witnesses” fell under the ban. For the Russian “Jehovah's Witnesses”, they have played at the international level many times - even at the UN. In December 2018, President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the HRC stated that “Jehovah's Witnesses”-“also Christians”, called their persecution for extremism “complete nonsense” and promised to figure it out.

The court in the Kristensen case in Orel was held all winter, on February 6, 2019 he was found guilty of “performing actions of an extremist orientation” and condemned for six years. The verdict says that “Kristensen opened and closed the liturgical premises, organized its cleaning, conducted meetings, explained the semantic content of literature, prayed” - that is, resumed the activities of the prohibited organization. The arguments of Kristensen’s defense were called insolvent. According to the law, one day in a pre -trial detention center is counted for a half in a correctional institution, so Kristensen will spend about three and a half years in the colony.

Law enforcement agencies continue to initiate new criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses. Kristensen appears the verdict in the European Court

On Friday, February 8, the representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, Yaroslav Sivulsky, said at a press conference in Moscow that Kristenen’s sentence is the first after the ban on the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. At the same time, about 50 criminal cases have now been opened against the members of the community under the article of the Criminal Code about participation in a prohibited organization. At least 50 more cases reached the courts in 33 regions of Russia. The defendants in these cases are 115 people aged 23 to 84 years, among them 90 men and 25 women. There are 24 people in custody before the trial. In total, in 2018, at least 270 searches took place in the houses of believers, according to Sivulsky. On February 6, when Kristensen was declared a verdict, two new criminal cases have opened two new criminal cases in Mordovia and Khanty-Mansiysk District.

Denmark Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen wrote on his Twitter that he was “deeply concerned” with the verdict. He said that the department would continue to carefully monitor the situation and help Dennis Kristensen. Yaroslav Sivulsky, in an interview with Medusa, specified that the representatives of the embassy were present at almost all meetings of the Oryol court: “They did not comment on, since this was not supposed, but they encouraged Dennis with their presence. Representatives of the embassy carried out work to ensure that Dennis could take a shower more often in the pre -trial detention center. ”

Dennis Kristensen's lawyers will appeal the verdict. They also prepare an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights on violation of Kristensen's right to freedom of religion. The Denmark Embassy will be in this lawsuit the third party.

Alexandra Sivtsova