The prosecutor's office in the city of Prokhladny demanded a 3-year suspended sentence for the believer

On December 21, 2018, the arguments of the parties in the case of 70-year-old Arkadi Hakobyan began in the Prokhladnensky District Court (Kabardino-Balkaria). He is charged under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The prosecutor asked him for 3 years of suspended imprisonment with a probation period of 2 years.

Arkadia Hakobyan, a native of a small Armenian village in Azerbaijan, came to Kabardino-Balkaria with his wife and three children in 1988, fleeing ethnic violence caused by the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. He met Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in the early 90s, amazed at the fact that this religious group was alien to the ideas of interethnic hostility and violence.

Law enforcement agencies had no complaints against Hakobyan until the security forces launched a campaign in Russia to harass Jehovah's Witnesses on the basis of far-fetched accusations.

Arkady Hakobyan was accused of distributing banned literature, as well as inciting hatred. The accusations are based on the testimony of six witnesses who said they attended meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses and heard Hakobyan speak disrespectfully about Muslims and Orthodox priests.

The court examined the evidence of the parties for a year and a half. During the hearings, facts indicating the fabrication of the case were voiced.

One of them is the billing of witnesses' mobile phones. He pointed out that during the religious meetings, the prosecution witnesses not only did not attend services on many of the days declared, but were not even in the city of Prokhladny. In addition, the billing revealed a close relationship between witnesses and law enforcement officers, which casts doubt on the impartiality of the testimony.

The witnesses themselves became confused in their testimonies and could not describe the details of where and how Hakobyan "committed the crime." It turned out that on the day when, according to the case file, Arkady Hakobyan expressed "hatred or enmity" against representatives of other religions from the stage, he did not speak at all at a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Arkadya Hakobyan denies the accusations and claims that he never saw prosecution witnesses at religious meetings until the day law enforcement officers came to the Kingdom Hall and banned literature was planted in the building. That day he saw for the first time one of these prosecution witnesses, who tried to smuggle banned literature into the building. Most of the prosecution witnesses he saw only in court or during investigative actions.

After Arkadya Hakobyan delivers his last speech, the judge of the Prokhladnensky District Court will leave for sentencing.