The futility of the scene was spelled out by a sobbing Marilyn Stoochnoff, one of the accused facing nine months in jail. ''This is not the answer,'' she pleaded. ''We have watched our parents go through this and our children must watch us. When will it all end?'' The crowd, some stripping off their clothes in sympathy, had earlier sung hymns praising God in Russian.

Doukhobor women sentenced to jail in B.C. arson case

Friday, December 29, 1978

Nelson BC -- NELSON, B.C. (CP) - Before a packed courtroom, listening to the sentence of a county court judge, the five women in the prisoners' dock wept and stripped naked. They were joined by about a dozen of the audience.

Mary Braun, Olga Hoodichoff, Pauline Berikoff, and Marilyn and Naida Stoochnoff, all convicted of arson, wept and leaned over the prisoners' dock to hug relatives on Wednesday before being carried bodily out of the courtroom to serve jail terms of up to two years less a day.

Once again the members of the radical Sons of Freedom Doukhobor sect had acted out the bizarre ritual that has become almost commonplace in this West Kootenay community.

But the futility of the scene was spelled out by a sobbing Marilyn Stoochnoff, one of the accused facing nine months in jail. ''This is not the answer,'' she pleaded. ''We have watched our parents go through this and our children must watch us. When will it all end?'' The crowd, some stripping off their clothes in sympathy, had earlier sung hymns praising God in Russian. Later, sons led their weeping mothers away. ''Don't hurt them,'' one cried out as court staff carried the still-naked women in their chairs to police cars waiting outside where the temperature was -13 degrees.

The court was jammed with about 100 relatives and friends as the sentencing started. The five women had arrived, one in custody and already naked, to face charges of arson and conspiracy to commit arson in the May 19 attempt to burn the home of their leader, Stefan Sorokin.

It was a case marked by evidence of buildings being put to the torch and threats of a curse that would last to the seventh generation.

The five women told court they acted under threat of the seven-generation curse by Orthodox Doukhobor leader John J. Verigin, a member of the Order of Canada, who was charged on Dec. 19 with conspiracy to commit arson. He was remanded to Jan. 8.

During the trial, the five had accused Mr. Verigin of ordering the burning of his rival's home, as well as several buildings belonging to his own sect.

Only the eldest of the women, Mary Braun, who was sentenced to two years less a day in jail, was naked during the hearing. The other four, all in their 30s, wore head scarves and coats.

But as soon as Judge D. M. McDonald of Kamloops sentenced them to nine months in jail, the other accused began to undress.

Looking at the elderly men and women in the public gallery it was difficult to picture them as members of a sect blamed for bombings and arson in the West Kootenay mountain valleys of southeastern B.C. for more than half a century. Judge McDonald said he faced a difficult task in deciding how to deal with the women.

Speaking through a Russian interpreter, he told them that while he accepted their evidence of the Verigin curse, other Doukhobors had to be protected. ''Citizens are entitled to be and must be protected from those who would burn down their homes,'' he said. ''The fact that these women are not criminals in the accepted sense - they are deeply religious people cannot constitute an excuse for acts of arson.' When the case ended, six older women staged a nude sit-in in the public gallery. They refused to move and were carried bodily by sheriffs and police who dumped them unceremoniously on the icy sidewalks.

The strange court appearance was not the first of its kind in Nelson on Wednesday. That morning, four men and four women aged between 40 and 72 also stood naked in the dock.

They faced charges of attempted arson and wrongful intimidation after the attempted firebombing of an Orthodox Doukhobor home at Brilliant, near Castlegar, last week. All were remanded in custody until Jan. 19.

The number of cases currently before the court, some involving younger Sons of Freedom, has led to speculation that the days of ''dark work'' by radical sect members may be returning.

In the past four years, about $4-million in damage has been caused to Doukhobor property by arson.

Arson has been a recurring fact of life in the Doukhobor community since the 1920s. It has been associated with the Sons of Freedom, who reject materialism, education and some government regulation.

Sociologists believe the sect members strip naked as a symbolic demonstration of innocence as well as an act of protest against the system aimed at disconcerting neighbors.