May 15, 2018. Review of the hearing in the case of a Danish believer in Oryol

On May 15, 2018, two witnesses invited by the state prosecution were questioned in court, namely, the interrogation of FSB officer Pavel Azarenkov, who conducted operational-search measures against Christensen, was continued, and a local resident, Elena Chernitsova, who, like Christensen, professes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, was questioned.

When asked by the lawyers, the FSB officer explained that the Oryol Regional Court and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not ban the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, that in Oryol, as before, it is allowed to practice the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, it is allowed to read the Bible and pray together with others, and it is not forbidden to spread one's religious beliefs, including on the street. It is noteworthy that the district police officer Maxim Ranev discovered an equally clear understanding of these issues the day before, on May 14, during interrogation in court.

During the interrogation of witness Elena Chernitsova, the court was strongly interested in how her religion differed from Orthodoxy. Another issue of interest to the court and the prosecution is who organized the cleaning of the worship hall, who encouraged it to take part in it. The witness explained that she did the cleaning on her own initiative, driven by religious feelings, since Jehovah God is pure and holy. However, it was clearly difficult for the court and state prosecutors to understand such an answer.

When asked by the court about her place of work, witness Chernitsova explained that she worked as a castellan in kindergarten No. 11 in Oryol, but soon after Christensen's arrest she was forced to resign because FSB officers came to her job and explained to the head T. Kostina that Jehovah's Witnesses "do not have the right to work in kindergartens." When the lawyers tried to find out from the witness the names of those FSB officers, the court stated that it was removing all questions related to this incident.

The hearing is scheduled to continue on May 16, 2018.