The Court Ordered to Free Dennis Christensen, one of Jehovah's Witness From Denmark. For His Faith, He Stayed in Prison for 1128 Days

[Isabella]

On June 23, 2020, at 19:50 Lgov district court, considering Dennis Christensen's petition for mitigation of his sentence, replaced his unexpired part of the prison term with a fine of 400,000 rubles. A Jehovah's Witness convicted of faith will be released after the court ruling enters into force.

The hearing was attended by Danish diplomats. No one else, including Dennis' wife Irina, was allowed into the building. Christensen himself attended the hearing via video.

Dennis Christensen was arrested on 25 May 2017 and sentenced to six years in prison in February 2019. The court considered it extremist that the believer continued to gather with his fellow believers for religious meetings and welcomed them before the religious service. However, there were no victims of Christensen's "crimes". To date, the believer has actually been behind bars for about 3 years and 1 month. However, taking into account the fact that according to the law, one day in the pre-trial detention facility equals 1.5 days in the general regime colony, Christensen has served more than 4 years of the term appointed by the court.

"From the moment of his arrest Christensen has behaved and behaved respectfully and correctly towards the employees of the investigation and court, the pre-trial detention facility and the employees of correctional colony № 3. He independently organized free English language training for prisoners, maintains friendly relations with other convicts," said Christensen's lawyer, explaining to Galina Petlitsa the grounds for the mitigation of punishment to the believer.

 

The lawyer described the mistakes made by the courts, which put Christensen in prison. As stated in an appeal ruling of the Supreme Court on October 18, 2016, which confirmed the liquidation of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses "Oryol," believers in Russia "are not deprived of the opportunity to perform their own religious worship. Contrary to this, the courts interpreted Christensen's private religion as the continuation of a banned legal entity.

"Judge Galina Petlitsa made a fair decision. This is a brave and honest act, which is not often decided recently by the judges hearing the cases of Jehovah's Witnesses," said the representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, Yaroslav Sivulski.

Replacing the punishment of a believer means for Christensen the opportunity to go free without any additional restrictions, except for the obligation to pay the fine, said Christensen's advocate.

Currently, there are 10 convicts in Russian colonies for the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, while another 24 people are imprisoned. A total of 353 people who hold the views of Jehovah's Witnesses are accused of extremism for their Christian faith. The religious persecution continues despite assurances from the Russian government and Vladimir Putin that there is no reason to persecute Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

https://jw-russia.org/news/2020/06/16.html

#dennischristenssen

#jwrussia

 

[Witness]

14 hours ago, Isabella said:

Replacing the punishment of a believer means for Christensen the opportunity to go free without any additional restrictions, except for the obligation to pay the fine, said Christensen's advocate.

So, the "king of the north" has a soft heart after all?

“Gradually, Russia and its allies emerged as the king of the north. As discussed in the preceding article, for a government to fill the role of the king of the north or the king of the south, it must do three things: (1) interact directly with God’s people, (2) show by its actions that it is an enemy of Jehovah and his people, and (3) compete with the rival king.”   WT 5/2020

 

 

 

[Space Merchant]

This is indirect, but there have been some people in Russia that has been combating this. Although some not even being religious, they stood up for Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia whereas outside of Russia, a lot of misinformation has been put out. In connection to this you have a lot of people who are against Mevedev and those who were targeted by the FindFace software, speaking up in regards to freedom itself. That was bound to happen granted the pressure of the situation kept on increasing ever since the day where the RoC connected with the Pope, as is, with the RoC making moves alongside the State Duma, some action, being against the people of Russia, especially prior to Putin's reelection, which as I recall, was a no contest win, where everyone was in the single digits and Putin himself was in the high doubles.

That being said, been tracking Russia for, 2 years almost, for other things related such as the UN, and Russian allies as is with Israel tension. The powers that be are indeed in connection with Babylon the Great, however, only a few can see this, likewise, with the powerful super powers and which side they are on.

[Isabella]

What Did the Prison and Prosecutor's Office Do to Prevent the Danish Believer Dennis Christensen From Going Free?

On June 26, 2020, the Lgov prison authorities illegally placed Dennis Christensen in a cell of a special punishment block (EPKT), typically used for malicious offenders. Given that his health has deteriorated, the move seems to be a calculated attempt to break him. At the same time, the prosecutor's office appealed the mitigation of his sentence, which they had originally supported in court. What happened?

What did the prosecutor's office do?

De jure, Dennis Christensen has already spent more than 4 out of 6 years in prison for his faith. Already one year ago, he was eligible for parole or another mitigation of his sentence. On the 4th attempt, his petition went to court, and on June 23, 2020, the Lgov District Court ordered the replacement of the remaining part of the sentence with a fine of 400,000 rubles. Artem Kofanov, Deputy Prosecutor of the Kursk Prosecutor's Office for the Supervision of Correctional Institutions, who took part in the trial, supported the mitigation of the punishment. But two days later, on June 25, Aleksey Shatunov, the prosecutor of the same prosecutor's office, stated that the court ruling was illegal and demanded to cancel it and sent the material for a new trial to the same court. What made the prosecutor's office change its position is unknown.

Why did Prosecutor Shatunov consider the decision to have been illegal? In his presentation, he referred to the administration of the Lgov prison, which, according to him, characterized the prisoner unsatisfactorily: "Due to the lack of positive activity in his work and public life of the correctional facility."

Shatunov's arguments were already considered invalid by the Lgov district court when they were voiced by the prison representatives during the trial on mitigation of the punishment. The defense submitted to the court expert reports confirming that Christensen has physical conditions that exclude him from physical labor: industrial work in the prison and participation in other types of labor. In turn, the representative of the penitentiary was forced to admit that the prison could not provide him with the type of work that would be in accord with his physical limitations. The court attached medical documents to the case and apparently relied on them in making its decision.

What did the prison do?

At the same time as the unexpected actions of the prosecutor's office, events were developing in the Lgov prison: on June 25, two reports against Christensen were made at the same time. The first one — for the fact that he was in the food room at a wrong time, and the second — for the fact that he was in the barracks in a T-shirt, without a jacket. This was enough to have him sent to the EPKT for 10 days. In penal colonies, this is the strictest of measures for particularly vicious violators of prison order.

According to the law, such measure is taken only in a case of repeated, serious violations by the prisoner and only after a medical examination for the absence of diseases that prevent the detention in the EPKT. Neither of these measures happened with Christensen.

"The colony administration chose a strange excuse to put Christensen in the EPKT as a particularly dangerous offender. The list of gross violations is given in Article 116 of the Penal Enforcement Code, and there is nothing in it that Christensen did. According to the administration of the colony, it turns out that being in a shirt in the barracks is the same as rioting or taking drugs," says Yaroslav Savulskiy, representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The believer and another prisoner are in a cell measuring 3.3 meters by 2.3 meters. The room is poorly ventilated and there is mold, which threatens the health of Christensen, who suffered pneumonia a few months ago. "Dennis has been diagnosed with a serious spinal cord condition. The administration of the colony is aware of this, but placed him in conditions where he has to sleep on a hard bed, experiencing excruciating pain," said the lawyer of the believer.

Christensen himself told the lawyer that at the time of his alleged violations in similar circumstances, there were other prisoners with him, but he alone was sent to the EPKT. "This leads to the idea that there is a planned action, which is necessary to prevent Dennis from being released by court order," said the lawyer.

https://jw-russia.org/news/2020/07/2.html