ALEKSEI PETROVICH ERMOLOV TO BE QUESTIONED IN CHRISTENSEN TRIAL
Orlovskie Novosti, 21 May 2018
In the trial of the case of the Dane Dennis Christensen, charged with extremism, a secret witness was summoned under the pseudonym "Aleksei Petrovich Ermolov," an Orlovskie Novostei [Orel News] correspondent reports.
The full "namesake" of the celebrated Russian military commander to whom a monument was erected in Orel, where the Ermolov family burial vault is located, will be questioned on 22 May. As noted in the court, the F.S.B. chose the pseudonym for the witness. It is planned to question him by means of a special link-up. The secret witness will not be located in the courtroom but in a special room from where his altered voice will be carried into the courtroom. Participants in the trial will not know his real name and other identifying information. However Judge Aleksei Rudnev will be informed about them.
We note that such a procedure has already been used in judicial proceedings in the case of the top managers of Orlovskaia Niva, Pavel and Petr Budagov.
On 21 May Christensen's lawyers filed their complaint against the questioning of a witness in this way, considering that there are no substantial reasons for it. The presiding judge in the case will consider the objection on the day of the questioning of the witness, when the F.S.B. delivers the envelope with his testimony.
Dennis Christensen was arrested 26 May 2017. Since then he has been held in a SIZO. On the day before his arrest, the house where local followers of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, which is banned in Russia, gathered was searched by the F.S.B. and police. The siloviki reported that during the searches, extremist literature was seized. In addition, the security agency noted that testimony had been received from witnesses about the involvement of the Dane in a crime of an extremist nature.
According to the charge against Christensen, while knowing for certain about the court's decision that banned the Jehovah's Witnesses local religious organization in Orel in 2016, he nevertheless continued to direct it and to conduct meetings and worship services and to distribute religious literature, including some that had been ruled to be extremist. At the first session of the case, Christensen's lawyers compared his prosecution to "genocide on the basis of religious identity." (tr. by PDS, posted 23 May 2018)
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