Case of Kopatskaya in Birobidzan

Ivan Nenko, an investigator of the Investigative Department for the city of Birobidzhan of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region, opens a criminal case

against unidentified persons under Part 1.1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (involvement of other persons in the activities of an extremist organization). A year later, it was merged with the case of Krushevsky and Artamonov.

In the village of Amurzet, the Kopatsky family is undergoing a five-hour search. FSB officers seize laptops, phones, tablets, flash cards, DVDs, notebooks and Bibles.

The investigator interrogates Yelena Kopatskaya, her husband and eldest son as witnesses.

FSB investigator Captain of Justice Dmitry Yankin opens a criminal case against Yelena Kopatskaya for participating in religious meetings, expressed in joint discussion of the Bible, singing songs and praying.

Elena Kopatskaya's accounts were blocked, she was included in the list of extremists of Rosfinmonitoring.

Investigator Dmitry Yankin takes Elena Kopatskaya on her recognizance agreement.

The case against Yelena Kopathskaya goes to the Leninskiy District Court in Birobidzhan (Amurzet).

Judge — Svetlana Anzhiyevskaya.

Prosecutor Yevgeniy Gavrilenko reads out the charges. Yelena Kopatskaya expresses her position. "Constitutional guarantees mean that the state provides me with the right and, accordingly, undertakes not to prosecute me for exercising it and allows me to decide for myself which religion to belong to, what to believe, and which religious practices to follow," says the believer.

The court reviews video recordings of meetings for worship attended by Kopatskaya. In these, believers discuss Bible texts on how to make wise decisions in everyday situations, how Bible principles help families and children; participants read aloud passages from the Bible and share personal comments.

Yelena Kopatskaya files four motions, all of which the court grants. The case materials include conclusions from religious experts, academic publications, Russian court decisions, and UN documents confirming that the peaceful religious activity of Jehovah's Witnesses is not extremism, and that joint worship, ministry, and conviction in the truth of their faith are ordinary manifestations of any religion. These materials also confirm that the liquidation of an organization does not make its members criminals, and that the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia is discriminatory.

Yelena Kopatskaya testifies, systematically challenging the prosecution's arguments. She points out that the video recordings of meetings for worship contain neither the use of banned publications nor calls to continue the activity of liquidated legal entities. "The video showed that I, together with other believers, worshipped my God according to the teachings of my religion," Yelena states. According to her, the conclusions of the investigation and the experts that extremist materials were used at meetings for worship are not supported by facts. "The conclusion of the experts contains no references to specific page numbers from which the alleged quotations were taken, nor to the quotations themselves," the believer says.

Yelena also reminds the court that, according to the clarifications of the Plenum of the RF Supreme Court, if a person simply practices his faith after the organization is liquidated and does not engage in extremist activity, there are no elements of a crime.