Another court session related to the case of the Protestant bishop Rev. Alexander Semchenko took place in Moscow. It may seem that he is charged with an ‘economic’ crime, a fraud. However, as a prominent Moscow lawyer sees it, de facto it is nothing more than a disagreement over business matters. Nevertheless, the present court upheld the previous court decision that Rev. Semchenko must be kept under house arrest. This means that he is deprived of outside walks, phone calls to his lawyer, etc…
Well-known Moscow lawyers write that “his guilt is not only far from being proven, but seems extremely unlikely, especially in one of the two charges”.
I know Rev. Semchenko personally for many years, since the times of the Soviet regime. I know him as the Christian leader, the most active participant of Evangelical church life, first in the USSR, then in Russia. He acted out the reality of his Christianity in many areas of religious, political and business life. I have also known him as a ‘prisoner of consciousness’ in the USSR of old, for being an active Christian. And I do not want him to become a ‘prisoner of consciousness’ once again, this time in the Russia of our days. But, let God’s will be done…
If I may rephrase what M. Khodorkovsky said about A. Navalny’s arrest, ‘there is nothing unusual for Russia to fight religious dissent using accusations of violent, political or economic crimes.’ The rulers of our country routinely presented their ideological or political opponents as regular criminals, thus insisting that there could never be any political or religious prisoners.
Recently, while visiting Rev. Semchenko at the place of his “home detention”, I quoted these Pushkin’s verses to him “Your tragic labor will not be in vain, … and the Freedom will greet you at the door”. Let us hope and fight for that.
For now, our consolation comes from the Bible: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1st Corinthians 10:13).
Sergey POPOV,
President of the Riazan area branch of Russian Association of (handicapped) Victims of Political Repression.
