NAME: RUS RELTRIAL 150604N TAPE: EF04/0620 IN_TIME: 11:22:50:17 DURATION: 00:02:05:18 SOURCES: APTN DATELINE: Moscow - 15 June 2004 RESTRICTIONS: SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot Taganka district court 2. Wide shot supporters outside of court building 3. Mid shot supporters holding posters 4. Sign "Taganka District Court" 5. Mid shot Samodurov arrives for court hearing 6. Wide shot Samodurov takes his place in courtroom 7. Wide shot participants 8. Mid shot prosecutor 9. Cutaway Russian emblem 10. Mid shot judge walks into courtroom 11. Wide shot judge sits down 12. Cutaway policemen 13. Samodurov approaches press 14. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Yuri Samodurov, defendant: "The religious organisations and the church, I think, have a right of censorship of those works of art that are meant for the churches. But the rest is anti-constitutional, it is outside the framework of the state, of our constitution." 15. Cutaway believers 16. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Yuri Schmidt, defence lawyer: "All the accused are not guilty, they did not break the law, they only exercised their constitutional right. And, above all, they did not intend to insult anybody nor incite any hatred." 17. Wide shot Taganka District Court STORYLINE A prominent Russian human rights advocate and two other defendants went on trial on Tuesday for organising an allegedly blasphemous exhibit. Yuri Samodurov and two others organised the controversial January 2003 exhibit called "Caution, Religion" at the Sakharov Museum, which was founded to promote democracy and human rights as championed by the late Soviet dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov. The exhibited works by about 40 artists included a Russian Orthodox-style icon with a hole instead of a head where visitors could insert their faces and picture themselves as God. There was also a Coca-Cola logo against the usual red background, but with Jesus' face drawn next to it and the words "This is my blood". Samodurov, who manages the Moscow museum, faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 500-thousand rubles (17-thousand US dollars) if found guilty of inciting religious hatred. Lyudmila Vasilovskaya, who also works at the museum, and artist Anna Mikhalchuk also face charges. More than a dozen activists gathered outside the Taganka district courthouse as the trial began, holding banners saying "No to the Inquisition". All three defendants pleaded innocent. Talking to journalists, Samodurov said that it was anti-constitutional for the exhibit to censor art outside of religious institutions. Yuri Schmidt, one of the defence lawyers, said the defendants did not break the law and did not intend to offend anybody. He told the court that the charges were so vague, it was impossible to answer them, explaining that the accusations failed to pinpoint which art works incited religious hatred and against whom and why. The musuem has claimed the trial is punishment for its long campaign against the war in Chechnya, which Russian troops have fought for most of the past decade. Four days after its opening in 2003, the exhibit was vandalised. The six perpetrators were detained and charged with hooliganism, but after a publicity campaign conducted by a Russian Orthodox priest, the charges were dropped. About two-thirds of Russia's 144 (m) million people are considered Orthodox Christians. After decades of state-sponsored atheism, destroyed churches have been rebuilt and many Russians have embraced the Church and its rituals. However, the dominance of the Russian Orthodox Church and its centuries-old ties to the state have prompted concern among religious minorities. Some professed atheists claim that religious symbolism is as omnipresent and oppressive as atheism was in Soviet times. Russia's lower house of parliament has petitioned the prosecutor-general's office "to take the necessary measures" against the exhibit organisors.