Case of Khamatshin in Chelyabinsk

Maksim Khamatshin's house is being searched as part of a criminal case against Yevgeny Bushev.

Investigator of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Investigative Committee of Russia in the Chelyabinsk Region, Colonel of Justice Alexander Chepenko initiates a criminal case against Maxim Khamatshin. The believer is charged with organizing the activities of an extremist organization.

Maksim is interrogated as a suspect. The interrogation lasts 20 minutes. The investigator takes a recognizance not to leave the place and proper behavior from the believer.

The investigator of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Chelyabinsk Region, Alexander Chepenko, makes a decision to bring Maxim Khamatshin as an accused.

On the same day, he is interrogated.

The case of Maksim Khamatshin is submitted to the Sovetsky District Court of the city of Chelyabinsk. It will be considered by judge Yulianna Vysokikh.

A preliminary hearing in the case is underway. Since the meeting is being held behind closed doors, a support group of 60 people is waiting outside.

The prosecutor announces the indictment. The lawyer and Maxim Khamatshin read out their attitude to the charges. Khamatshin states, among other things: "Within the framework of the criminal case, virtually any actions involving the joint confession of beliefs are unreasonably regarded as unacceptable, and the beliefs themselves, which imply the need for spiritual interaction, are considered extremist." In conclusion, he adds: "I do not fully admit my guilt in the crime imputed to me, I ask for an acquittal."

40 people come to the meeting to support the believer.

The court examines the materials of the case, volumes 1 to 4.

The defendant testifies. Among other things, he draws the court's attention to the fact that the psychological and religious examination did not reveal in his words any propaganda of exclusivity, superiority, inferiority of a person on the basis of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, attitude to religion, membership in any social group.

Commenting on the testimony of a prosecution witness who said that a person cannot remain Jehovah's Witness if his or her spouse does not profess this religion, the believer emphasizes: "Love and respect are what God expects in families, regardless of whether the husband and wife are of the same faith or different. My mother is an example of this. She is a Christian and professes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. And her husband, my father, is a Muslim. They've been happily married for 30 years."

38 people come to the hearing to support the defendant.