We demand an immediate end to the persecution of Dennis Christensen and other Jehovah's Witnesses who are persecuted for their religious affiliation. The case against Christensen is one of the first in the campaign to prosecute Jehovah's Witnesses in Russ

[bruceq]

Human Rights Center: https://memohrc.org/news/memorial-priznal-politzaklyuchennym-veruyushchego-svidetelya-iegovy-iz-danii-dennisa

"Memorial" recognized the political prisoner of the believing Jehovah's Witness from Denmark Dennis Christensen

The case against Christensen is one of the first in the campaign to prosecute Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

Denmark's national Dennis Ole Christensen, a believing Jehovah's Witness who lives in Orel, is charged with committing a crime under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 (organization of the activity of a religious organization in respect of which a decision was made to liquidate in connection with the implementation of extremist activities) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to the investigation, Christensen heads the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orel.

FSB officers detained Christensen on May 25, 2017 during a meeting in a building on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street, where the Oryol Jehovah's Witnesses together read the Bible. On May 26, Svetlana Naumova, a judge of the Sovietsky District Court of Orel, decided to select a preventive measure in respect of him in the form of detention.

The case against Christensen was one of the first in the campaign to prosecute Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, which intensified sharply after the Supreme Court on April 20, 2017 decided to recognize the Jehovah's Witnesses' Center in Russia as an extremist organization. Moreover, Christensen became the first in the modern history of Russia, a Witness of Jehovah, who was deprived of his freedom due to religious affiliation.

The decision to select a preventive measure against Christensen states that he allegedly "committed organizational actions aimed at continuing the illegal activities of the IDPs of Jehovah's Witnesses" Eagle "and expressed in the convocation of meetings of JWO Jehovah's Witnesses" Eagle "..., the organization of preaching activities, the distribution of financial Funds of IDPs of Jehovah's Witnesses "Eagle".

In our view, the charges against Christensen only on the basis that he is a believing Jehovah's Witness are discriminatory and violate international legal acts, in particular the right to freedom of religion. The decision of the Oryol regional court to recognize the extremist local religious organization (LRO) of Jehovah's Witnesses "Eagle" and its liquidation and the decision of the Supreme Council to recognize the Russian "Jehovah's Witnesses" as an extremist organization and ban its activities in the country do not have legal grounds and contradict Art. 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation guaranteeing the right to freedom of conscience and religion.

We demand an immediate end to the persecution of Dennis Christensen and other Jehovah's Witnesses who are persecuted for their religious affiliation.

Recognizing a person as a political prisoner or being persecuted for political reasons does not mean either the consent of HRC "Memorial" with his views and statements, nor the approval of his statements or actions.

Yandex-purse of the Fund for Assistance to Political Prisoners of the Solidarity Union for Political Prisoners to Assist All Political Prisoners 410011205892134.

More details about the case, see  here .

[bruceq]

Danish Jehovah's Witness to stay in Russian jail for 6 months

COURT EXTENDS TERM OF DETENTION FOR DANISH CITIZEN CHRISTENSEN

Website of Soviet district court of Orel, 20 July 2017

 

On 20 July 2017, the Soviet district court of the city of Orel extended the term of detention of a member of the Orel religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and citizen of Denmark, D.O. Christensen, who is accused of committing a serious crime, provided by part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian federation.

 

The term of detention of D.O.Christensen was extended by 4 months, until 23 November 2017.

 

The order has not taken legal effect and may be appealed in the Judicial College for Criminal Affairs of the Orel provincial court. (tr. by PDS, posted 21July 2017)

 

DISTRICT COURT LEAVES MEMBER OF OREL JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN CUSTODY ANOTHER 4 MONTHS

SMNews, 21 July 2017

 

On 20 July 2017, the Soviet district court of the city of Orel extended the term of detention of a member of the Orel religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, until 23 November 2017.

 

The order has not taken legal effect and may be appealed in the Judicial College for Criminal Affairs of the Orel provincial court.

 

Earlier, D.O. Christensen stated that he resides permanently in Orel and he has family and real estate here and therefore he does not intend to flee from the investigation, while complaining about the conditions of detention in the SIZO. The Dane's attorney asked for the selection for him of a measure of prevention that does not entail incarceration. However the prosecutor's office spoke against cancellation of the current measure of prevention, and the court did not find grounds for releasing the preacher from custody.

 

We recall that in late May 2017, the UFSB of Russia for Orel province conducted investigation actions within the framework of opening a criminal case on the basis of part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the RF with respect to the leader of the local Orel religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, a citizen of Denmark, D.O. Christensen. As a result of questioning about 50 members of the local congregation, siloviki received evidence for the criminal case against the person of his participation in illegal activity.

 

On the basis of the decision of the Soviet district court of the city of Orel of 26 May 2017, the person was held in custody in SIZO-1 [pretrial detention cell], which was the first instance in Russia. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 July 2017)

 

COURT IN OREL DECIDES WHETHER DANISH BELIEVER WILL BE RELEASED FROM CUSTODY

Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 19 July 2017

 

On 20 July 2017 at 10:30 will begin in the city of Orel a hearing on the future measure of prevention for a Jehovah's Witness who is guilty of nothing. He is a citizen of Denmark who has been languishing in an Orel SIZO since 25 May, simply because he read the Bible along with fellow believers. He is charged with violation of article 282.2 (Arranging the activity of an extremist organization).

 

The case of the Dane Dennis Christensen, who has already lived more than 10 years in the city of Orel, will be heard by the same judge, Svetlana Naumova, who earlier concluded that the only possible pretrial measure for the law-abiding Dennis was detention. The F.S.B. investigator who is conducting the case will ask the judge for the same harsh measure of prevention.

 

There is something strange in this case. Special bewilderment is provoked by the circumstances of the appeal hearing on the decision about detention, which was supposed to have occurred on 7 June 2017 in the Orel provincial court with Judge Igor Paukov presiding. The hearing was unexpectedly postponed until 21 June because of the lack of a Danish translator, although an article suddenly appeared in the official newspaper which said that "the Orel provincial court left without change the decision of the district court about detention of the citizen of Denmark." Such a "false start" leads to the suspicion that the decision had already been made and communicated to journalists of the official newspaper back before the court hearing with the participation of a translator, which occurred more than 10 days later, on 21 June 2017.

 

Yet another strange things is that the investigators continue to convince the court that the Danish subject allegedly was the leader of the forbidden local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Orel. Actually not only was he not ever the leader but he was not even a member of that organization, of which one can be persuaded by consulting official information.

 

Attorneys are continuing to work actively to prove the complete innocence of the believer. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 July 2017)

 

"MEMORIAL" RECOGNIZES JEHOVAH'S WITNESS BELIEVER FROM DENMARK, DENNIS CHRISTENSEN, AS POLITICAL PRISONER

The case against Christensen is one of the first in the campaign for persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

Website of Memorial, 21 July 2017

 

A citizen of the kingdom of Denmark, Dennis Ole Christensen, a Jehovah's Witness believer living in Orel, is charged with committing the crime provided by part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the RF (arranging the activity of a religious organization with respect to which a decision has been made for liquidation because of conduct of extremist activity). According to the account of the investigation, Christensen was the head of a religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orel.

 

Personnel of the F.S.B. arrested Christensen on 25 May 2017 during a meeting in a building on Zheleznodorozhnaia Street where Orel Jehovah's Witnesses were reading the Bible together. On 26 May Judge Svetlana Naumova of the Soviet district court of Orel ordered to choose for him a pretrial measure in the form of detention in custody.

 

The case against Christensen is one of the first in a campaign for persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, which sharply intensified after the Supreme Court on 20 April 2017 issued a decision recognizing the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as an extremist organization. Moreover, Christensen was the first Jehovah's Witness in the modern history of Russia to be deprived of liberty because of his religious affiliation.

 

The order for the choice of the measure of prevention with respect to Christensen points out that he allegedly "conducted actions of an organizational nature aimed at continuation of the illegal activity of the Orel local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and expressed in the calling of meetings of the Orel local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses . . . , arranging preaching activity, and disbursement of funds of the Orel local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

From our point of view, the charges presented to Christensen only on the basis of the fact that he is a Jehovah's Witnesses believer are discriminatory and they violate international legal acts, in particular the right to freedom of religious confession. The decision of the Orel provincial court finding the Orel local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist and the decision of the Supreme Court finding Russian Jehovah's Witnesses to be an extremist organization and banning its activity in the country do not have legal bases and they violate article 28 of the constitution of the Russian federation that guarantees the right to freedom of conscience and religious confession.

 

We demand that the persecution of Dennis Christensen and other Jehovah' Witnesses who are subjected to persecution for religious affiliation be immediately stopped.

 

Recognition of a person as a political prisoner or as persecuted for political reasons does not mean that "Memorial" agrees with his views and statements nor approves of his statements or actions. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 July 2017)

Background articles: Danish citizen arrested in connection with raid on Jehovah's WitnessesMay 26, 2017 Severe treatment of foreign Jehovah's Witness in heart of RussiaMay 27, 2017 

Harsh measure against Jehovah's Witness unjustified

May 31, 2017 Danish Jehovah's Witness remains in Russian jailJune 13, 2017 Imprisoned and not convicted Jehovah's Witness loses appeal for releaseJune 21, 2017 Court refuses to grant habeas corpus to Danish Jehovah's WitnessJune 22, 2017

[bruceq]

RUSSIA: DENNIS CHRISTENSEN, A DANISH PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE IN RUSSIA

• BY ADMIN_HRWF
• ON JUNE 22, 2017

 

 

Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe and Human Rights Without Frontiers (23.06.2017)

Full name: Dennis Ole Christensen

Birthdate: 1972, December 18

Citizenship: Danish

Residency: He has resided in Russia for about 17 years

Civil state: Married to Irina Christensen (Russian citizen) on August 3, 2002 – no children.

Occupation: Works as a carpenter. His wife has no resource or financial support. Their banks accounts have been frozen and their bank card confiscated.

Circumstances of the arrest: On the evening of May 25, 2017, Dennis Christensen – a baptized Jehovah’s Witnesses since July 25, 1989 – was arrested along with 15 Russian citizens at a peaceful worship service held in a privately owned building in Oryol. The valid rental contract was presented to the investigation leader during the raid. At least 15 masked and armed police together with Federal Security Service (FSB) officers disrupted the religious service. The police collected copies of the identification documents of the 70-80 people in attendance and seized their electronic devices. Mr. Christensen was immediately taken to the detention in Oryol.

Most of the attendees were detained for some hours. Then the older ones and families with children were allowed to leave. The remaining (about 20) persons were detained in the Hall the whole night or were released about 9:00 a.m. the following morning. Several felt ill during the night, had nothing to eat, one even had an epileptic seizure and was taken to the hospital. An ambulance arrived and the paramedics were ordered to stay during the night. None got any sleep or something to eat.

Charges: Mr Christensen has been charged with organizing an illegal religious activity under article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal code and he faces up to 10 years of imprisonment. It is unclear at this stage on which factors the judge relied to consider that Mr Christensen was organizing the meeting.

Current place of detention: His postal address to the detention is Krasnoarmeiskaja 10, SIZO-1, City of Orel, 302040, Russia.

Conditions of detention: According to his lawyer, Mr. Christensen was not given any food during the 36 first hours following his arrest, with the exception of some water. He was kept awake and constantly interrogated during the first night, and appeared at a hearing in the afternoon the following day before the court that decided over his pre-trial detention. Mr. Christensen was exhausted (he had been kept awake for almost 40 hours) when he appeared before judge Svetlana Naumova in Soviet District Court of Oryol. The court ruled to keep Mr. Christensen in detention until July 23 pending the investigation for fear that he being a foreigner would flee the country. He is now kept in detention in a cell he shares with 2 criminals. Only his lawyer and the consul from the Denmark Embassy in Moscow have been able to visit him. Despite repeated requests, the wife of Mr. Christensen could not exercise her right to visit him since his arrest until now. The representatives of the Danish Embassy reported him being in good health.

For more information and/or interviews:

Aaron Rhodes (President, FOREF)Peter Zoehrer (Executive Director, FOREF)Phone: +49-170-323-8314 / +43 664-523-8794Email: foref.office@gmail.comBlog: foref-europe.org

Willy Fautré (Executive Director, HRWF)Phone: +32478202069Email: international.secretariat.brussels@hrwf.netWebsite: www.hrwf.eu

Or contact Dominic Zoehrer, HRWF representative at the OSCE meeting in Vienna

[The Librarian]

 

"I am cold and my Bible was taken away from me"...Dennis Christensen

Court refuses to grant habeas corpus to Danish Jehovahs witness

Article at link below in English

http://www2.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/170622a.html

 

Its a cruel cruel system......

[The Librarian]

He complained about the conditions of his detention. The Dane is "in custody" and for him it is "very cold and damp." Since he was not given warm clothing, he has suffered chronic illnesses. "I need professional treatment which I cannot get here [in the SIZO]. Besides, I can take a shower only once a week and the other days I use a bottle. There is no hot water here. They took away my Bible, and I consider that unfair," the Dane explained. 
 

[The Librarian]

Habeas corpus (/ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔːrpəs/; Medieval Latin meaning literally "that you have the body"[1]) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, to bring the prisoner to court to determine if the detention is lawful.[2]

 

Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person". Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights goes further and calls for persons detained to have the right to challenge their detention, providing at article 5.4:

"Everyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided speedily by a court and his release ordered if the detention is not lawful."

[The Librarian]

A Human Rights without Frontiers YT video bringing to light Russia's persecution of JW's and Dennis Christensen as a prisoner of conscience.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

"We demand an immediate end to the persecution of Dennis Christensen and other Jehovah's Witnesses who are persecuted for their religious affiliation."

If it wasn't so incredibly sad ... that statement would be laughable.

"Here I stand with my bayonet, there you stand with your laws. We'll see which prevails"  - A. Hitler

THESE are the kinds of people you are dealing with... NOT liberal Snowflakes, who will melt when you threaten them !

Habeas corpus (/ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔːrpəs/; Medieval Latin meaning literally "that you have the body") to THEM means after they are finished with the body, you can have it back, and you get a bill for the bullets.

They KNOW what they are doing!

They KNOW that it is EVIL.

They don't care.

The best way for tyrants to consolidate their power is to be able to do evil in the name of righteousness with complete impunity and immunity ... for "The Good of The State".

That way, you STAY controlled ... for fear YOU MAY BE NEXT.

.