Case of Gadrshina in Vyselki

Searches are being conducted at at least 31 addresses in the village of Vyselki and neighboring settlements. Electronic devices, bank cards and personal records are seized from Elena Gadrshina.

The Investigative Committee is initiating a criminal case against Elena Gadrshina under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It is based on the testimony of a secret witness under the pseudonym "Shepherd" who has attended Jehovah's Witnesses services in the past. Later, the man again began to communicate with believers and film online worship services in order to transmit this information to the Center for Countering Extremism.

Rosfinmonitoring blocks the accounts of Gadrshina and several other believers from Vyselki, and two days later seizes her funds.

The investigator summons the believer for interrogation and takes from her a written undertaking not to leave the place.

Elena Gadrshina is charged with committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Among other things, she is charged with "reading aloud to other participants the religious books of Jehovah's Witnesses, emphasizing that these books contain true knowledge about God."

The case goes to the Vyselkovsky District Court. It will be considered by judge Ruslan Teplukhin. He is also hearing a case brought on similar charges against other local believers, Vasilina Penskaya and Viktor Spirichev.

The court grants the defense's request for the admission of Elena Gadrshina's daughter as a second defender.

31 people come to support the believer, all are allowed into the meeting room.

The public defender submits a new motion to return the case to the prosecutor in order to remove obstacles in the further consideration of the case. The prosecutor is requesting time to consider the motion.

The court rejects the previously filed motion of the defense to return the case to the prosecutor.

In another petition, the defence alleges that the investigator violated the statutory deadlines for the preliminary investigation. According to the investigator, it was allegedly not possible to involve Gadrshina in the investigation of the criminal case. However, the believer declares that she was not absent anywhere, since she was under recognizance not to leave. The prosecution asks for time to prepare a response.

The court rejects the lawyer's statement submitted at the previous hearing about the investigator's violation of the terms of the investigation.

The public defender submits a second motion to return the case to the prosecutor. It states that this criminal case was initiated unlawfully, since the materials that served as the basis for this were obtained in violation of the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and the Federal Law "On Operational Activities". The judge denies.

The assistant prosecutor reads out the charges. Yelena Gadrshina expresses her attitude towards him. She says: "The materials of the criminal case do not disclose any arguments and evidence that I had a criminal intent to commit the alleged crime. The prosecution mistakenly mistakes the confession of religion for participation in the activities of a banned legal entity."

Interrogation of a secret witness under the pseudonym Pastor. The defense draws attention to the fact that the witness personally attended the meetings for worship mentioned in the case file, his name is mentioned in the transcript, and his face can be seen on the videos. The defense filed a petition to declassify the identity of the Pastor, but the court refused.

Interrogation of Roman Latysh, the investigator who led the case. The defense believes that he made several falsifications. The lawyer asks him how it is possible to look through 23 discs with video recordings lasting 63 hours in three hours and compile 300 sheets of transcripts on them. "These are my ways of examining objects and documents," the investigator answers.

The defense also notes that the protocol of the interrogation of the secret witness "Pastor", which was carried out by Latysh, coincides word for word with the protocol of interrogation conducted by another investigator, A. Garmash, in a similar case in Vyselki. To this, the Latvian replies that he does not remember the circumstances of the interrogation.

At the hearing, the former investigator A. Garmash, who was in charge of the case of Ushakov and other believers, is interrogated. The defense shows him the protocol of the interrogation of the "Shepherd", which was drawn up by Latysh in the case of Gadrshina, and asks him to compare it with his own. Garmash notes that the protocols are similar, including errors. According to the defense, this confirms that the Latvian did not interrogate the witness.

Professor of the Kuban State University, Doctor of Psychology Elena Belan is interrogated.

During the interrogation, the expert's negative attitude towards Jehovah's Witnesses was noticeable. For example, she calls Jehovah God "an object of worship" and, commenting on the study of foreign languages for the purpose of preaching, notes: "You have to be so confused."

At the next hearing, the interrogation continues via video-conferencing. Next to the expert Belan is a public defender with copies of the case materials certified by the court.

The defense asks why there are 155 errors in the sources of quotations in its conclusion. The judge recalls that at the last hearing Belan claimed: there were no mistakes, and after the transfer of the conclusion, it is not known who did what with him. When the public defender asks Belan if this is her conclusion and signature at the end, she answers: "Since this is a copy of the case file, it is not clear whether it is my signature or not. I did not sign a copy."

Linguistic expert Elena Ryadchikova is being questioned, whom the defense accuses of gross violations: the text of the conclusion contains 12 references to non-existent transcripts, 15 quotes without indicating the sources, as well as cases of word substitution and distortion of wording. On this basis, the defense considers the expert's conclusions unreliable. The expert confirms that she worked exclusively with the transcripts provided by the investigator, without checking them with the original audio recordings.

At the same time, Ryadchikova states that she did not find calls to hatred on the basis of nationality or race in Elena Gadrshina's statements.

The defense petitions to request from the Sochi Expert Center the documents on the basis of which the experts cooperated with it in the framework of this criminal case. According to the center's response, contracts with these experts were lost.

The defense files motions to exclude a number of evidence - expert opinions, testimony of witnesses from another case, as well as a secret witness Pastor. The judge postpones the evaluation of evidence until the verdict is rendered.

Elena Gadrshina makes her final statement. At the same session, the judge announces his decision.