Photo source: Kuzmafoto / depositphotos.com

Photo source: Kuzmafoto / depositphotos.com

Photo source: Kuzmafoto / depositphotos.com

Criminal trial

July 2-4, 2018. Review of the hearing in the case of a Danish believer in Oryol

Oryol Region

In court, the name of the Orthodox theologian Oleg Kurdyumov was again heard.

On July 2, 2018, the prosecutor partially read out procedural documents in open court, indicating that the conversation between Kurdyumov and Christensen in the Country Chicken café, which took place on May 16, 2017, was secretly recorded on a dictaphone. (Oleg Kurdyumov is a lecturer at Oryol State University, a graduate of the Department of Religious Studies and Theology, a specialist in the history of near-Orthodox heresies.) Lawyer Anton Bogdanov drew the court's attention to the fact that the printed transcript protocol made by the FSB officers sometimes distorts the meaning of what Christensen said during the conversation with Kurdyumov, and that listening to the audio recording will help to establish this fact.

After that, the court examined the audio recording of the conversation between these two people in a closed court session. (Behind closed doors of the courtroom, there was information about the motives of the young historian, who appeared next to Christensen precisely when the FSB was secretly recording video or audio. Only the prosecutors, lawyers, judge and the defendant who remained in the courtroom could hear the conversation between Christensen and Kurdyumov at a table in an ordinary café in the city of Orel, after which Christensen was arrested 9 days later. What are the questions that evening, May 16, 2017, worried the Orthodox theologian Kurdyumov? Was he interested in Bible teachings or was he trying to lead Christensen to topics of interest to FSB officers? It is hoped that the answers to these questions will be heard in the debate of the prosecution and defense, and possibly in the verdict of the court.)

On July 3, 2018, the public prosecutor, in open court, examined the documents contained in volumes 2 and 3 of the criminal case, from which it follows that the telephone conversations of Dennis Christensen and 4 other citizens were wiretapped, by decision of the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Orel, for six months. And Christensen's conversations continued to be listened to even after he was placed in a pre-trial detention center, until January 2018.

On July 3 and 4, 2018, the court session was again held behind closed doors, since this was related to listening to audio recordings of telephone conversations of the persons indicated in volumes 2 and 3 of the criminal case.

The next court hearing is scheduled for July 9, 2018.

Case of Christensen in Oryol

Case History
Dennis Christensen is the first Jehovah’s Witness in modern Russia to be imprisoned only because of his faith. He was arrested in May 2017. The FSB accused the believer of organizing the activities of a banned organization on the basis of the testimony of a secret witness, theologian Oleg Kurdyumov from a local university, who kept covert audio and video recordings of conversations with Christensen about faith. There are no extremist statements or victims in the case. In 2019, the court sentenced Christensen to 6 years in prison. The believer was serving time in the Lgov colony. He repeatedly asked for the replacement of part of the unserved term with a fine. For the first time, the court granted the request, but the prosecutor’s office appealed this decision, and the prison administration threw the believer into a punishment cell on trumped-up charges. Christensen developed illnesses that prevented him from working in prison. On May 24, 2022, the believer was released after serving his sentence and was immediately deported to his homeland, Denmark.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Oryol Region
Locality:
Oryol
Suspected of:
according to the investigation, together with the others he conducted religious services, which is interpreted as “organising the activity of an extremist organisation” (with reference to the court’s decision on the liquidation of the local organisation of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Court case number:
11707540001500164
Initiated:
May 23, 2017
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
UFSB of Russia in the Oryol region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-37/1
[i18n] Рассмотрено судом первой инстанции:
Железнодорожный районный суд г. Орла
Judge:
Алексей Николаевич Руднев
[i18n] Суд апелляционной инстанции:
Орловский областной суд
[i18n] Суд апелляционной инстанции:
Льговский райсуд Курской области
Case History
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