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Prosecutors to appeal verdict in trial of Jehovah's Witnesses leader

© RIA NovostiThe court acquitted Alexander Kalistratov on April 14 citing the lack of evidence.
The court acquitted Alexander Kalistratov on April 14 citing the lack of evidence.  - Sputnik International
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Prosecutors in Russia's Republic of Altai said on Tuesday they will appeal a decision of a court in the town of Gorno-Altaisk to clear the leader of a local branch of Jehovah's Witnesses of charges for circulating extremist materials.

Prosecutors in Russia's Republic of Altai said on Tuesday they will appeal a decision of a court in the town of Gorno-Altaisk to clear the leader of a local branch of Jehovah's Witnesses of charges for circulating extremist materials.

The court acquitted Alexander Kalistratov on April 14 citing the lack of evidence.

"We categorically disagree with Kalistratov's acquittal and will lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Altai to order new hearings of this case," a spokesman for the local prosecutor's office said.

Alexander Kalistratov, 34, has been accused of disseminating banned literature after he shared some of the group's publications with the residents of Gorno-Altaisk.

According to investigation, Kalistratov disseminated books, brochures and magazines, which allegedly "incited religious enmity and hatred," between October 2008 and December 2009.

The trial started in October 2010 with the testimony of witnesses on the side of the prosecution.

The investigation involved the analysis of 48 religious articles, seized during the probe, with the help of experts in linguists, philosophy and religious studies.

Kalistratov faced 160 hours of community works if convicted.

The Jehovah's Witnesses, which has some seven million followers worldwide and over 200,000 in Russia, have already been banned in a number of Russian regions and in some former Soviet republics.

Last June similar charges were laid against the group in the southwestern Siberian city of Omsk.

In 2009, the Russian Supreme Court's judicial chamber for civil cases upheld a regional court ruling to ban the organization's branch in the southern Russian city of Taganrog.

The Jehovah's Witnesses branch in the Russian capital was dissolved by district court ruling in 2004, but the European Court of Human Rights declared the decision illegal last June.

GORNO-ALTAISK, April 19 (RIA Novosti)

 

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