18 June 2004 22:46
Prosecutor appeals court`s rejection of Sakharov museum case
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - The state prosecutor in the case against managers of the Sakharov museum for putting an
anti-religious exhibition on display more than a year ago appealed the ruling of Moscow's Tagansky court to send
the case back.
"Prosecutor Kira Gudim feels that the court's arguments ungrounded and the court ruling illegal and
unwarranted and, consequently, not to have judicial authority. She wants the case to be sent to the same court,"
the Moscow prosecution service says in a report that reached Interfax on Friday.
The prosecution service of Moscow's Central Administrative Area accused the Sakharov museum's management,
Yury Samodurov, Lyudmila Vasilovskaya and Anna Mikhalchuk, of "inciting ethnic, racial or religious enmity" in
the January 14-18 exhibition 'Caution, Religion!'
One exhibit was an icon of Christ the Savior on the background of a Coca Cola advertisement carrying the words
"this is my blood." Another was the figure of a saint with his face cut out so that anybody could insert their
head into the hole.
The investigators concluded that the exhibition had been meant "to humiliate and offend the Christian faith in
general, and Orthodox Christianity and the Russian Orthodox Church in particular, including the symbols of Orthodox
Christianity." [RU EUROPE ASIA EMRG CRIM REL] ap aw
[Interfax] |
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