In Kabardino-Balkaria, the court recognized the examination of the prosecution as "vicious evidence"

On March 14 and 15, 2018, at the hearing in the criminal case of Jehovah's Witness Arkadya Hakobyan in the Prokhladnensky District Court (Kabardino-Balkaria), expert Irina Balova was questioned, who fulfilled the conclusion underlying the charge against Hakobyan under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement to hatred, humiliation of dignity). The court identified significant shortcomings in this conclusion and decided to appoint a new examination in the case.

Expert Balova analyzed the disgusting "statements" that are falsely attributed to Arkada Hakobyan from the "memoirs" of several prosecution witnesses, who, judging by the location of their mobile phones, were not even in the vicinity of the worship building on the day they indicated. At the same time, a number of defense witnesses claim that Hakobyan did not say anything like this either on the specified day or at any time at all. Among the methodological shortcomings of the examination, one can note the fact that the expert ignored the absence of a punctuation mark in the analyzed statement, which allows interpreting it in a completely different way.

The defense submitted a reasoned motion to the court on the need for a new examination. Despite the objection of the public prosecutor, the court ruled to appoint a comprehensive psychological and linguistic examination of the case.

The hearing will continue on April 17, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.