Dmitriy Yankin, senior investigator-criminalist of the investigation department of the FSB of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region, interrogates Natalia Kocheva as a witness in the case of Oleg Postnikov. The investigator threatens the believer with prosecution under the article on refusal to testify due to the fact that the woman uses Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Dmitriy Yankin issued a decision to initiate a criminal case against Natalya Kocheva under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The investigation believes that Natalya continued the activities of "an extremist organization in the course of many (at least four) conspiratorial meetings ... in the form of a collective religious assembly... consisting of a public study of various extremist materials, the performance of songs from a special collection of religious teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, prayers, sermons."
Early in the morning, Natalia is detained at her workplace and taken home. Within 20 minutes, three FSB officers conducted a search in the presence of a lawyer. A tablet, several phones and a Bible were seized from Natalia.
The criminal case against Natalia Kocheva was transferred to the Birobidzhan District Court. It will be considered by Judge Yulia Tsykina.
The first court session in the case. In response to the arguments of the prosecution, the believer states that her right to practice the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses is guaranteed by the RF Constitution. According to her, the Bible and materials based on it are freely available and cannot be considered extremist, which means they cannot serve as a basis for criminal prosecution.
The court reviews video recordings of meetings for worship. The prosecutor repeatedly pauses the playback, noting episodes involving Kocheva. Natalya comments on one fragment where the Bible book of Revelation is discussed: "Believers are peacefully, without calls for violence or hatred, sharing how they understand it." Kocheva also reminds the court about current Russian legislation: "There is a law protecting sacred texts — the Quran, the Bible, the Gandzhur, the Tanakh. Their quotations cannot be recognized as extremist. The law is signed by the President of the Russian Federation."