The last word of the defendant Stanislav Klyuchnikov in Nizhnekamsk

 RUSSIA

 

The last word of the defendant Stanislav Klyuchnikov in Nizhnekamsk

on September 5 , 2023

Tatarstan

The believer drew the attention of the court and those present to the fact that he did not violate Russian laws: "Freedom of religion is part of a democratic society."

Transcript of the court session in the Nizhnekamsk City Court of the Republic of Tatarstan dated 05.09.2023 in the case 1-17/2023 (1-254/2022) on charges of Klyuchnikov Stanislav Evgenievich and others. in committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Klyuchnikov Stanislav Evgenievich:

At the beginning of my speech, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you, Your Honor, for the fact that during the trial you showed care, tact and patience in considering this complex case. It was clearly visible that you want to carefully and thoroughly understand and understand this difficult matter. I want to thank the secretary for his kind attitude.

I am grateful to the State prosecutor for his efforts to pronounce the name of God correctly, because for me, a believer, it is very important. Many thanks to the lawyers for their hard work, preparation for the meetings; for adequately defending my rights.

But most of all, of course, I want to thank my dear wife Oksana and daughter Evelina. Words cannot convey how important it is that there are loved ones nearby who are ready to go through numerous sufferings with you. They also had to endure a lot, because until November 2020, my family's life was calm and flowed in a peaceful way. But at that time we all had to go through a strong shock when at 06:00 police officers, accompanied by riot police, burst into our house. They seized valuables, including archival family photos and videos, bank cards that we used in everyday life, equipment that our daughter used for school education. Non-prohibited items were seized. Later, my family had to worry and worry, as I was often called to the Investigative Committee in the city of Kazan. But they did not give up, did not lose their positive attitude and did not give up, they were able to overcome many difficulties together with me.

I am very happy that my relatives, friends, co-religionists have always taken care of me and my family in such difficult circumstances. They were worried, interested, provided practical assistance, attended meetings. Since we were given a preventive measure in the form of a subscription not to leave, we could not leave our city for several years, but our friends, knowing this, came and visited us themselves. No one turned away and was not afraid! They have proved this in practice many times, and I am very grateful to them for such a warming attitude! I felt for myself the truth of the words that are written in the Bible: "A friend loves at all times and, like a brother, will appear in time of adversity" (Proverbs 17:17). Many people came to the courthouse to express their support. I also want to thank all of them from the bottom of my heart.

What I would like to pay special attention to, summing up this process. Throughout the whole process, Your Honor, in fact, we discussed my faith in the God Jehovah, forms of worship (chants, prayers, etc.) and belonging to the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. During the operational search activities (ORM), the investigation and the trial, the prosecution tried in every possible way to prove and confirm my belonging to this religion. And it was easy to do: it was simple to identify on the presented transcripts the words that Jehovah's Witnesses use in their religious vocabulary, and the peculiarities of holding recorded meetings of believers peculiar to this religion.

Your Honor, at the trial, I did not hide and said more than once that I adhere to the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses and thus I exercised my right, which is guaranteed to me by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, article 28. And this has nothing to do with the liquidated local religious organization (MRO) of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nizhnekamsk. But it is clear from the words and arguments of the respected state prosecutor that he does not distinguish between the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses and a legal entity — the MRO of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The prosecution also puts forward arguments that we are dangerous to society, destroy the faith of others, destroy families and family ties, refuse medical treatment, etc. And even that we are blinded by our faith! But this has not been proven. And as I understood the respected state prosecutor and the testimony of the CPE employee Shcherbakov and the secret witness Khabdarakhmanov, that no Jehovah's Witnesses and in any form (faith or legal entities) should exist on the territory of the Russian Federation at all. This is their opinion and their position. But this contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation and common sense! It seems that this is exactly what extremism is expressed in.

Earlier in my testimony, I drew attention to the interpretation of the concept of "extremism". So, I would like to emphasize that extremism can be called "the incitement of ... religious discord; propaganda ... of a person's inferiority on the basis of his ... religious affiliation or attitude to religion; violation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of a person and a citizen, depending on his ... religious affiliation or attitude to religion; obstruction of the legitimate activities of ... public and religious associations or other organizations". But the case materials often mention the prohibition of faith! Derogatory statements are mentioned, for example, "sect", "adept", etc., which just indicates the alleged "inferiority of a person on the basis of his ... religious affiliation." It really offends my religious feelings!

How can a person be forbidden to believe or how can he be forced to change his faith!? In fact, there is discrimination based on religious affiliation. Thus, according to the prosecution, after the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of April 20, 2017, Jehovah's Witnesses are prohibited from holding their meetings… Any joint activity is interpreted as organizing the activities of a liquidated local religious organization.

During the trial, the defense party and during the testimony of the defendants presented convincing arguments that the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses has a significant difference from the concept of "legal entity of Jehovah's Witnesses." And this was confirmed by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, explaining that the ideology or religion of Jehovah's Witnesses was not evaluated for extremism and was not recognized as such. Also, the appeals board in that case directly pointed out that "the court of first instance did not assess the legality of the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses and the ways of their expression." And I also repeat that the Constitution of the Russian Federation in Article 28 guarantees everyone the right to both individual and joint confession and dissemination of faith, including the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses. Freedom of religion is part of a democratic society.

I would like to note that Jehovah's Witnesses is an international, well—known religious organization recognized in civilized countries. But it is important not to forget that the word "organization" in this formulation is not a legal term. It denotes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses as a whole, that is, on a worldwide scale. It is a community of all believers and their associations around the world. And the internal structure of religion exists independently of the national legal structure. The Bible says that Jehovah is the God of order. Therefore, you must agree, it is logical that those who call themselves his servants will conduct their activities not chaotically, but in an organized manner. And the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, of course, did not prohibit any international religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. Believers objectively cannot stop interacting with each other and performing various divine services, as well as carrying out other activities usual for religious relations. Otherwise, such a religion will simply cease to exist.

In general, to put it simply, all the evidence presented by the prosecution confirms only that in Nizhnekamsk there was a group of Jehovah's Witnesses who did not separate themselves from the world structure of this religion, but continued, as throughout the world, to worship God. And I continued to remain a believer, a Jehovah's Witness. After all, no court decision can make a person stop believing. An attempt to bring to criminal responsibility for the commission of the above actions, especially taking into account the recent clarifications of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, is an incorrect application of the criminal law.

Your Honor, by his accusation, the state prosecutor actually wants to encourage me to renounce my faith. But what does giving up faith mean to me? This means giving up the Bible, prayers, communication with fellow believers and faith as such, that is, from my inner beliefs, principles, experience, life history. You can say to erase more than 25 years of my life!

Faith, according to James 2:26, is "dead without works." But what works should confirm faith? For example, Jesus gave the task recorded in Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and teach all nations." This is exactly what all Jehovah's Witnesses are doing, trying to fulfill this command of Jesus. Part of our religion is to preach together or what we tell about the Bible to those people who are ready and willing to listen to us. But even this, according to the prosecution, is imputed to us as a crime.

Conclusion: the concepts of "the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses" and "the legal entity of the Jehovah's Witnesses MRO" are different. The prosecution doesn't seem to hear our arguments. She uses the phrase "organization of Jehovah's Witnesses" over and over again to refer to the liquidated legal entity of which I am accused of organizing. The activities of the MRO were discontinued in 2017 after the decision of the Supreme Court, and faith or belief, according to logic and common sense or simply universal principles, cannot be banned or required to be changed.

One of the most important questions to which the state prosecutor has not given an answer: "How to combine the constitutional right to joint confession of faith within the framework of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses with a ban on organizing activities recognized as extremist, so as not to be criminally prosecuted?" Need to sever all ties with other believers? Is it necessary to stop holding services focused on a single religious education program for believers around the world? Or is it even necessary to write a renunciation of faith, as was required of Jehovah's Witnesses in concentration camps?

The only thing that helps to separate legitimate actions and illegal ones is the real actions of the accused. We are generally accused of being (Jehovah's Witnesses) dangerous people for society. But what actions and facts at this trial have shown that we are dangerous and cause harm to society? To put it bluntly, did extremist actions actually take place? Was there enmity and hatred, was there violence and the like? At this court session, a number of people were interrogated and most spoke positively about us, and no one cited a single fact that we had harmed someone with our actions and there was a crime and damage caused. Even the operative of the TSE Shcherbakov, who carried out the ORM, did not confirm that we had harmed someone or forced someone to do something.

During the investigation of physical evidence, as evidence of my crime, things that do not belong to me and have nothing to do with me were investigated. Moreover, they were published long before the decision of the Supreme Court. And by the way, among the seized books were publications of other religious movements. During the investigation of the materials of the criminal case, the state prosecutor often cited quotations from the Bible, apparently indicating that they are also of an extremist nature, although the Bible is not banned on the territory of the Russian Federation and is called a Holy Book.

Your Honor, how can people who adhere to the following rules or principles be dangerous to the state and society and be called extremists:

love your neighbor as yourself;

respect the authorities;

-love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength;

If you can do good, do it;

get up in front of the elder;

a husband should love his wife;

from now on, do not leave joint meetings;

read the Bible in a low voice day and night;

do to others as you want them to do to you.

It is these biblical rules that I try to adhere to in my life. For me, violating these norms is unacceptable, because I am a Christian who is required to follow the norms of morality and behavior established in the Bible. Such orders can in no way contain signs of extremism.

It is interesting that even the employees of the investigation bodies directly told us that they do not see us as bad people, that we are not criminals, which they usually deal with, are ready to give a positive characterization, if necessary, that they have an order to carry out work. Yes, they disagreed with something about our beliefs, but they didn't see it as a threat. We were not forcibly taken to the Investigative Committee, we did not hide from the investigation, we arrived on time. And even the fact that we were not initially sent to a pre-trial detention center, but were chosen not to leave and proper behavior, too, in my opinion, suggests that we did not and do not pose a threat to society and the investigation. And you, Your Honor, have left the chosen measure of restraint unchanged, for which my family and I are very grateful to you!

An amazing charge has been brought against me. There are no injured or injured. I dealt with people in legal ways, helped others in the realization of the constitutional right to profess faith. From the literal interpretation it follows that the prosecution recognizes the existence of biblical truths, but considers their dissemination a criminal offense. According to the State Prosecutor, it is impossible to disseminate information explaining the Bible, as well as touching on scientific, historical, social and other topics, on pain of criminal liability. Everything is very confusing. It seems like I did everything according to the law, but I find myself, according to the state prosecution, outside the law.

Your Honor, as the distinguished state prosecutor noted in the debate, I have positive characteristics, there are no offenses. And this is the merit of the upbringing that I received from the Bible.

I want to assure everyone that I have not violated any law of the state. I have always tried to do everything as it should be in our state. I am a peaceful believer who professes his religion in the way it happens all over the world, and it does not actually contradict the laws of our country. I, along with others, pray to Jehovah God, sing songs of praise to our heavenly Father, I read the Bible and explore it together with other believers. And I really, Your Honor, think that worshipping God, as it is done in the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, is not prohibited.

In the end, I want to say that the court by which Jesus was executed is very similar to what is happening in most courts today. The evangelist Mark recorded the prediction of Jesus Christ that a time of persecution would come for his followers: "You will be put on trial and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before rulers and kings to testify before him about Me" (Mark 13:9). That's the reason I'm here. I couldn't even imagine 10 years ago that I would end up in the dock. And at first I wondered why peaceful believers could be judged. But, unfortunately, I came across this. I had enough time to reflect deeply on the words of Jesus Christ and understand why I faced persecution.

At the same time, the court, after examining various circumstances and evidence, has a choice in what decision to make in my case. Therefore, I want to emphasize, Your Honor, that all my actions are dictated by love for God and neighbors. For me, by virtue of the professed creeds, it is unacceptable to propagandize any extremist ideas or incite hostility and hatred. During the court session, you could make sure that Jehovah's Witnesses are ordinary people. I cannot be called someone who undermines the security of the state and its constitutional foundations. I am sure that our legislation did not provide for the purpose of criminal prosecution of a person for his religious beliefs. I want to behave honestly in everything, as it is written in the Bible, so I ask the court to pass the only correct and fair verdict — acquittal!

In conclusion, I would like to ask you, Your Honor, to return or provide for copying to my family the hard drive seized during the search. It contains an important video archive for our family, in which our daughter's childhood is filmed, from birth onwards. We don't have copies of these archived videos, but I would like to leave a memory for our daughter.

Summary of the case

Region:

Tatarstan

Locality:

Nizhnekamsk

What is suspected:

according to investigators, "creating and matching a favorable image [of a believer], singing special songs, hymns, prayers"

Criminal case number:

12002920022000071

Case initiated:

November 12 , 2020

The current stage of the case:

Appeal.

is being investigated by:

SU IC RF for the Republic of Tatarstan

Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

282.2 (1)

Case number in court:

1-17/2023 (1-254/2022)

Court:

Nizhnekamsk City Court of the Republic of Tatarstan

Judge of the Court of First Instance:

Sergey Kamenov