PROSECUTOR
ASKS TWO
YEARS FOR ZALIPAEV
Kavkazskii
Uzel, 22
September 2020
The
prosecution
requested two years in a penal colony settlement for a Jehovah's
Witness from
Maisky, Yury Zalipaev. Zalipaev's defense attorney requested
that the court
fully exonerate him, recalling the contradictions in witnesses'
testimony.
As
Kavkazskii Uzel
has written, the Maisky district court of Kabardino-Balkaria has
been
considering the case of Yury Zalipaev since 16 July 2018. There
was an
interruption in the sessions that lasted almost a year. On the
basis of the
prosecutor's petition, in July the court summoned experts for
questioning who
had drawn a conclusion about the absence of evidence of
extremism in Zalipaev's
statements. On 24 August, in court, the authors of the expert
analysis
confirmed their conclusions. On 26 August, the prosecutor
requested a new
expert analysis in Zalipaev's case, but the court did not grant
this petition
and scheduled the debates of the sides.
On 21
September, the
debates in the case of Yury Zalipaev were held in the Maisky
district court of
Kabardino-Balkaria. The prosecutor requested giving the
defendant real time—two
years incarceration in a penal colony settlement.
Zalipaev's
attorney
Anton Omelchenko, speaking in the debates, cited the conclusion
of a religious
studies specialist which is in the materials of the Zalipaev
case. According to
the expert conclusion, "starting in the 1880s, there never has
been
advanced against Jehovah's Witnesses an accusation of expressing
a threat or
calls for using force against representatives of other religions
or
nonbelievers."
"By
virtue of
their Christian essence and specifics of their history as a
'persecuted
church,' Jehovah's Witnesses have never called for violence or
discriminatory
activities against other religions, churches, nonbelievers, and
even against
governments persecuting them. As Christians they could not and
did not approve
nor commit such actions, and thus there is no evidence of this
either in the
literature, nor sources, nor judicial materials," the attorney
declared,
speaking in court.
Jehovah's
Witnesses
avoid any violence and calls for it. And it is precisely for
this reason that
they consistently refuse to perform military service and find
violence
unacceptable, the attorney noted. Believers refuse to serve in
the army, to
take up arms, and even simply to put on a military uniform,
while they
understand that they may face many years of court hearings and
imprisonment,
Omelcheko pointed out, citing the opinion of the religious
studies specialist
Mikhail Odintsov and the practice of the European Court of Human
Rights.
The
defense attorney
analyzed the testimony of two main witnesses, whose evidence lay
at the base of
the case against Zalipaev. The attorney pointed to
contradictions and
inconsistencies in these testimonies: witnesses did not attend
worship services
during which Zalipaev, according to the prosecution, expressed
hostile calls,
and video or audio recordings confirming them do not exist.
The
attorney also
cited the conclusion of the complex forensic
psychological-linguistic and
religious studies expert analyses prepared by the Russian
Federal Center of
Forensic Expert Analysis under the Russian Ministry of Justice.
According to
the experts' conclusions, statements ascribed to Zalipaev "are
not
characteristic for his personality" and "do not reflect the
worldview
of the Jehovah's Witnesses."
Omelchenko
asked the
court to completely exonerate his client, whose personal and
religious
convictions "do not in any way correspond to the charges
advanced."
In his
final word,
Yury Zalipaev quoted the Bible, citing the words of Jesus Christ
about
"judgments" against believers. "I feel at peace because I am
being tried not for evil deeds, but for good deeds. I did not
commit crime
either against the state or against God," Zalipaev said.
The
verdict in the
Zalipaev case will be announced on 7 October. "Many months have
passed of
struggle during questioning of each witness in the case and in
consideration of
each petition. The prosecutor requested real time of
imprisonment, which shows
that the struggle is not over," Omelchenko said to a Kavkazskii
Uzel
correspondent, commenting on the conclusion of the session.
Zalipaev
is under his
own recognizance not to leave. He works as a welder and the
measure of
restriction does not limit his possibility of working. (tr. by
PDS, posted 22
September 2020)
Related articles:
Judge shields Jehovah's Witness from
additional examination
August 28, 2020
Expert
opinion defends Jehovah's Witness in criminal trial
August 26, 2020
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