In Urai, Andrei Sazonov was again sentenced to a fine for reading the Bible

 RUSSIA 


In Urai, Andrei Sazonov was again sentenced to a fine for reading the Bible

October 23, 2023 Khanty-Mansiysk JSC


On October 23, 2023, the judge of the Uraisk City Court, Igor Pospelov, found 43-year-old Andrei Sazonov guilty of extremism for discussing the Bible. The believer was sentenced to a fine of 450,000 rubles.


Two years earlier, the court imposed a fine of 500,000 rubles on Sazonov. The appeal overturned this verdict and returned the case for a new trial. The retrial lasted almost a year and a half. Prosecution witnesses positively characterized Sazonov. It turned out that there were no victims in the case, and religious studies and linguistic examinations did not reveal any extremist statements in the materials studied. The prosecutor requested a penalty of 1,300,000 rubles for the believer.


Speaking with the last word, the believer said: "I have not said or done anything that could relate to extremism. Moreover, my respect and faith in God do not even allow me to think about something like that."


Andrei Sazonov has been defending the right to freely profess his faith for almost 4 years. The criminal case against him was initiated in January 2019. Soon after, a series of searches and interrogations took place in the KhMAO, during which several believers were tortured.


A total of 27 Jehovah's Witnesses in the region became involved in criminal cases initiated solely for the exercise of the right to freedom of religion.


The case of Sazonov in the Urals


Brief case history


In January 2019, Andrei Sazonov, the father of two minor children, deputy CEO of an energy company, faced persecution for his faith. The investigator of the IC opened a criminal case against him on the organization of extremist activities. After the search and interrogation, the believer was placed in a pre—trial detention center for 20 days, then placed under house arrest, and six months later - under a ban on certain actions. Later, Andrei Sazonov was also accused of financing the activities of an extremist organization. The court considered the case from June 2020 to December 2021. As a result, Sazonov was sentenced to a fine of 500,000 rubles. The appeal overturned this decision and sent the case for a new hearing to the same court, but with a different composition. In June 2022, repeated hearings began, and in October 2023, the court imposed a fine of 450,000 rubles on the believer.


Summary of the case


Region:

Khanty-Mansiysk JSC

Locality:

Uray

What is suspected:

religious affiliation is interpreted as "Organization and participation in the activities of an extremist organization" (with reference to the court decision on the liquidation of the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses)

Criminal case number:

11902711001000310

Initiated:

January 31, 2019

The current stage of the case:

Appeal

Is being investigated by:

SO SU of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug

Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

282.2 (1), 282.3 (1)

Case number in court:

1-6/2023 (1-128/2022; 1-7/2021; 1-83/2020)

Court:

Uraisk City Court of KhMAO-Yugra

Judge of the Court of First Instance:

Igor Pospelov


In the photo: Andrey Sazonov on the day of the verdict

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