Photo: Dennis Christensen. 2019 year

Inside Penal Colonies and Detention Centers

A knife was planted in Dennis Christensen's cell to exert pressure. Soon it was visited by members of the Presidential Council

Oryol Region

At the end of July 2019, the staff of the colony where Dennis Christensen is serving his sentence planted a knife on him - and immediately "found" him under a video camera. This incident was used to put pressure on the believer. Support for him was the visit of Andrei Babushkin from the Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC). Human rights activists inquired about the conditions of his detention and the observance of human rights.

The leadership of the colony, primarily the deputy head Igor Myasnyankin, unsuccessfully tries to prohibit Dennis Christensen from talking about the Bible with his cellmates, although this is not prohibited by the rules of the colony. The believer insists on his constitutional right to freedom of religion. In some cases, even those who are the guardians of human rights by virtue of their work are influenced by common stereotypes. For example, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kursk Region, Vladimir Firsov, at a meeting with Dennis Christensen, expressed bewilderment that "a sectarian from abroad could come to our Orthodox country."

Irina Christensen, having visited her husband in the colony, informed the lawyer about the appalling conditions of Dennis Christensen's detention in the colony. For example, she had to wait 8 hours standing for a date in a stuffy corridor, all the windows of which were clogged or painted over. There are puddles in the premises of the prison dormitory, toilets are faulty, the dominance of mice, mosquitoes and cockroaches. Visitors for inspection are stripped to their underwear. In pre-trial detention centers, where dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses are held, living conditions are generally better.

Together with Andrey Babushkin, Maria Bolshakova, a member of the Human Rights Council, visited Christensen's penal colony (IK-3 in the Kursk region in Lgov). Andrey Babushkin himself is the head of the standing commission on assistance to the Public Monitoring Commission, reform of the penitentiary system and crime prevention. In February 2019, Babushkin demanded to stop the criminal activities of the security forces responsible for the torture of Jehovah's Witnesses detained in Surgut. Then he sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General and the head of the Investigative Committee.

In June 2017, Dennis Christensen filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Later, the Kingdom of Denmark entered the case of Christensen v. Russia as a 3rd person. The case is currently pending. The believer was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by the Russian organization Memorial and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. The European Union called for Christensen's "immediate and unconditional release". The UN spoke in the same vein, calling on the Russian authorities to release all persons arrested for their peaceful religious beliefs.

Case of Christensen in Oryol

Case History
Dennis Christensen is the first Jehovah’s Witness in modern Russia to be imprisoned only because of his faith. He was arrested in May 2017. The FSB accused the believer of organizing the activities of a banned organization on the basis of the testimony of a secret witness, theologian Oleg Kurdyumov from a local university, who kept covert audio and video recordings of conversations with Christensen about faith. There are no extremist statements or victims in the case. In 2019, the court sentenced Christensen to 6 years in prison. The believer was serving time in the Lgov colony. He repeatedly asked for the replacement of part of the unserved term with a fine. For the first time, the court granted the request, but the prosecutor’s office appealed this decision, and the prison administration threw the believer into a punishment cell on trumped-up charges. Christensen developed illnesses that prevented him from working in prison. On May 24, 2022, the believer was released after serving his sentence and was immediately deported to his homeland, Denmark.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Oryol Region
Locality:
Oryol
Suspected of:
according to the investigation, together with the others he conducted religious services, which is interpreted as “organising the activity of an extremist organisation” (with reference to the court’s decision on the liquidation of the local organisation of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Court case number:
11707540001500164
Initiated:
May 23, 2017
Current case stage:
The verdict entered into force
Investigating:
UFSB of Russia in the Oryol region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-37/1
[i18n] Рассмотрено судом первой инстанции:
Железнодорожный районный суд г. Орла
Judge:
Алексей Николаевич Руднев
[i18n] Суд апелляционной инстанции:
Орловский областной суд
[i18n] Суд апелляционной инстанции:
Льговский райсуд Курской области
Case History