Citizens File Complaints: Bailiffs Seized Passports From Listeners and Returned Them With Summons for FSB Interrogation

On January 29, 2020, about 100 concerned citizens came to the Sovetsky District Court of Lipetsk, where the detention of three believers in the pre-trial detention center was extended. Right there, they were given summons for interrogation to the investigator in the case against believers. Citizens are outraged by the actions of officials. The first complaints were filed on February 2.

Listeners of the trial in the case of Viktor Bachurin, Alexander Kostrov and Artur Netreba sent complaints to the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia and other bodies about the actions of the judicial authority (Sovetsky District Court of Lipetsk, the chairman of the court is Irina Bensman), which undermine confidence in the judicial system and its authority, raise doubts about the impartiality of the court, testify to extra-procedural ties between the leadership of the court and the Federal Security Service.

The actions of the security forces did not frighten those who came, they smiled and applauded the arrested as they were escorted along the corridor to the courtroom. Unlawful persecution of believers under "extremist" articles causes a great public outcry, so many listeners come to the trials of Jehovah's Witnesses - friends, acquaintances and simply not indifferent to what is happening with freedom of religion. Often, complete strangers who understand the absurdity of the accusations come to provide moral support to those arrested, despite the threat of falling under suspicion for this.

Entrance to the building of the Sovetsky District Court of Lipetsk was carried out with a passport. The bailiffs let them in, but then three security officials, including police Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Vladimirovich Kravchenko, collected documents from the listeners and, to everyone's bewilderment, issued summonses for interrogation from the investigator of the local FSB department, Yakushev. The summons were issued by a man who introduced himself as Andrei Mikhailovich Puzanov (he refused to show his official ID). As a result, citizens were not allowed into the courtroom, the judge declared the hearing closed.

As the lawyers emphasize, a mass summons for interrogation in this way grossly violates the principle of publicity of the trial. "Any citizen, be it a journalist, a relative of the defendant or just a passer-by, has the right to enter the courthouse and attend the trial without fear that he will be summoned to the FSB and asked why he decided to exercise his right under the law," says one of the lawyers involved in the defense of believers.

"The officials had no reason to seize passports from me and other citizens in the district court building, since this is not provided for by Russian law," one of the complaints to the Prosecutor General of Russia says.