Photo: Arkadya Hakobyan

Unjust Verdicts

In Kabardino-Balkaria, a court convicted a peaceful believer

Kabardino-Balkaria

To find Arkadya Akopovich Akopyan guilty under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced to 120 hours of compulsory labor. This decision was announced on December 27, 2018 by Oleg Golovashko, a judge of the Prokhladnensky District Court. There is no real evidence of Hakobyan's guilt in the case, so the verdict will be appealed. In the past, all attempts to charge individual Jehovah's Witnesses under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation were unsuccessful.

The court believed in an implausible accusation: five witnesses for the prosecution, who do not profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, unanimously admitted that they had massively distributed Jehovah's Witnesses brochures with signs of extremism on behalf of Arkadi Hakobyan. The court considered all other episodes to be unproven or insignificant.

"Jehovah's Witnesses never instruct strangers to distribute our liturgical literature," says Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. Finally, for some people who do not profess our religion to so unanimously undertake to spread the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses is something out of the realm of fantasy. We are deeply saddened by the stigma of a criminal that the judge imposed on an honest, decent person."

It is noteworthy that in 2018, Russia took steps to decriminalize Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation at the legislative level. Nevertheless, the court considered itself entitled to sentence a 70-year-old pensioner who worked all his life working as a tailor to punishment in the form of compulsory labor.

Earlier, under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the authorities tried to accuse Jehovah's Witnesses in Gorno-Altaisk, Yoshkar-Ola, Sergiev Posad, and Chita. All the trials that came to a verdict under this article ended with the full acquittal of believers with the right to rehabilitation.

Case of Akopyan in Prokhladny

Case History
In the late 1980s, Arkadya Hakobyan, his wife and three children fled ethnic cleansing in Azerbaijan. More than 25 years later, as a peaceful elderly man, Arkadia became a victim of religious repression. In June 2016, a criminal case was opened against him for a public speech in which he allegedly humiliated the dignity of followers of other religions. In May 2017, hearings began in the Prokhladnensky District Court, during which it turned out that the testimony of witnesses underlying the case was false, and the expert’s opinion was replete with errors. The prosecutor demanded 3 years of probation for the believer. In December 2018, Judge Oleg Golovashko sentenced the believer to 120 hours of compulsory labor. In March 2019, the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic overturned the conviction. Hakobyan was cleared of all charges.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Kabardino-Balkaria
Locality:
Cool
Court case number:
73
Initiated:
June 11, 2016
Current case stage:
Case dismissed
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282 (1)
Court case number:
1-7/18
[i18n] Итог дела:
дело прекращено, Аркадя Акопян считается несудимым
[i18n] Расследовалось:
МРСО СУ СК РФ по Кабардино-Балкарской Республике
[i18n] Рассмотрено судом первой инстанции:
Прохладненский районный суд Кабардино-Балкарской Республики
Judge:
Олег Анатольевич Головашко
[i18n] Суд апелляционной инстанции:
Верховный Суд Кабардино-Балкарской Республики
Case History