02 May 2024, 21:06
Court finds Jehovah's Witness* Guschin not guilty of extremism
A district court in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has acquitted Kirill Guschin, a Jehovah's Witness*, finding him not guilty of extremism.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 25, 2024, at a session of the Maiskoye District Court, the state prosecutor demanded to sentence the above Kirill Guschin, accused of creating an extremist organization and involving other people in the activities thereof, to seven years in penal colony.
The defendant has stated that the forbidden literature was planted on him by law enforcers.
According to Yaroslav Sivulsky, an activist of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, in his last word the 42-year-old Guschin declared his innocence. "I simply use the freedom [of religion] that Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides for," Mr Sivulsky has quoted Kirill Guschin as stating.
The charges are based on the testimony of some secret witness who secretly made an audio record of peaceful worship services.
This is not the first acquittal of a Jehovah's Witness* from the KBR, accused of extremism, Yaroslav Sivulsky has noted. Earlier, the court acquitted Yuri Zalipaev from Maiskoye, and the KBR's Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Arkada Akopyan from Prokhladny.
*396 Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 2, 2024 at 04:00 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: СK correspondent
