In Arkady Akopyan's case, prosecution witnesses expose themselves, advocate asserts

In the Prokhladnensky District Court, two witnesses testified at the trial in the case against Arkady Akopyan, the former chief of the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses (banned in Russia). They said that they heard Arkady Akopyan delivering an extremist speech. However, the witnesses were unable to describe the premises where they allegedly were at that time. This was noted by advocate Anton Omelchenko.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that, according to the Prosecutor's Office, Arkady Akopyan humiliated the dignity of followers of other religions and distributed forbidden books. On July 4, two witnesses reported that they were at the meeting where Arkady Akopyan delivered a speech. However, the billing of their mobile phone connections showed that they were in other places at that time.

According to the advocate, "the prosecution witnesses exposed themselves."

Besides, the defendant argues that the forbidden literature was planted to him.

According to public prosecutors, on March 20, 2016, Arkady Akopyan voiced words of disrespect against Muslims and Orthodox priests. However, the case materials contain no audio or video records of his statements.

A week later, Arkady Akopyan allegedly distributed to believers books from the list of extremist materials and asked to distribute them among local residents.

According to the magazine "Takie Dela", in 1988, Arkady Akopyan moved to Kabardino-Balkaria as a refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh in connection with the start of the conflict. According to the 69-year-old tailor, he came to the religion when he was 45 years old.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.