The last word of the defendant Sergei Ananin in the city of Belovo

 RUSSIA 

The last word of the defendant Sergei Ananin in the city of Belovo

March 31, 2023

Kemerovo region

From the courtroom

Addressing the court with the last word, the believer stated: "All the evidence examined shows that I exercised my right to freedom of religion according to the canons of my religion, which is not proibited by law."

Transcript of the court session in the Belovsky City Court of the Kemerovo region dated 03/31/2023 in the case 1-71/2023 (1-395/2022) on charges of Sergey Viktorovich Ananin of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Ananin Sergey Viktorovich:

Your Honor and dear participants in the process! As a believer, I am convinced that the Bible is a letter from our Creator. All the advice contained in it is for the benefit of people only. For example, the Word of God advises: "Thank you for everything." Therefore, Your Honor, let me begin my last word with words of sincere gratitude to all participants in the process.

First of all, I want to thank my God Jehovah for his support, which he provided with the help of his power — the holy Spirit, which I have felt all the time since my arrest. After all, God knows that I have not committed anything illegal and I am being held accountable only for my faith, which is not prohibited by law.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my wife Elena, who took care of me during my house arrest. She had the difficult responsibility of providing for our family financially. Worried about me, she tried not to miss court sessions. During this difficult period of my life, she was my support and support in everything.

I am grateful to you, Your Honor, for your hard work. You know, when I was taken to court and I was waiting with my wife Elena for an invitation to the courtroom, I noticed how you sometimes have to switch from one trial to another. And I thought: "After all, it requires emotional, mental and psychological readjustment. It's probably not easy." Thank you, Your Honor, for your tact, attention and respect for my person! You listened patiently to my position when I gave my testimony. You did not interfere, but allowed me to take care of my health, allowing me to visit the attending physician at the Kemerovo cardiology center.

I would also like to thank your assistant secretary, who diligently recorded everything that was voiced in this trial.

I also want to thank the prosecution, represented by the prosecutor, for taking into account my religious feelings and, when examining the case materials, trying to emphasize correctly when pronouncing the name of God — Jehovah.

I am very grateful to my lawyer, Lyubov Nikolaevna, for the emotional support and clarification of the procedure of the trial.

I want to say a big thank you to the representatives of the Belovskaya FSIN Natalia Sergeevna and Sergey Yuryevich, who treated me with respect when they performed their professional duties.

Your Honor, today I am accused of having "deliberately organized the continuation of the activities of the Jehovah's Witness MRO ... by organizing the convening and holding of a meeting of the Jehovah's Witnesses MRO ... including through a program for organizing video conferences, conducting conversations in order to promote the activities of this banned organization."

However, in this trial, I tried to provide evidence of the fallacy of the accusation. All recorded meetings were worship services of a religious group — the Belovo – Yuzhnoye meeting — and not meetings of the founders of the Central Belovo MRO committee or council, therefore they could not in any way be a continuation of the MRO's activities, which were prohibited.

After all, in order to believe in God, you do not need to create legal entities. The most important thing is to study the Bible at home or in the circle of believers, to pray, to perform religious chants. The purpose of these services was the same — the worship of the God Jehovah. And this was not a violation of the Supreme Court's decision of April 20, 2017 — the court did not ban the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The fact that a video conferencing program was used during the services was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And we couldn't go to each other's houses to chat, to pray together, to discuss the Bible. At that time, many institutions and even courts used video conferencing.

All the evidence examined shows that I was exercising my right to freedom of religion according to the canons of my religion, which is not prohibited by law.

I didn't do any harm to anyone or anything, because there are no victims in the case. It means that my conscience is clear both before God and before the state. And if I'm not guilty, then why are they trying to bring me to criminal responsibility?

This fulfills the prophecy of Jesus Christ that not everyone will like the way of life that I lead out of love for Jehovah God, his son and for people.

Thanks to this criminal case, I had the opportunity, as Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, the 10th chapter, the 17th and 18th verses, to "testify before the judges," that is, to talk about my religious beliefs and about our Creator's plan for humanity.

I sincerely believe that in the near future the Creator, God Jehovah, will intervene in the affairs of people. There will be no more evil, violence and injustice, and paradise will be restored throughout the earth. All people will be healthy, and there will be no more diseases, old age and death, even the dead will be resurrected. Today it sounds fantastic, but God assures that he can do it and no one and nothing will prevent him from making the lives of people who obey him truly happy. And I, dear court, sincerely wish you and everyone in this Room to live up to these events and feel these blessings for yourself.

My religion teaches goodness and gives people real hope for the future, helps them change their lives for the better right now: show love, appreciate family relationships, respect people of all races, nationalities and religions. I did not express any extremist ideas, did not commit illegal actions, and did not resume the activities of a prohibited legal entity.

This process has come to an end, and Your Honor will need to make a balanced and fair decision on the case. And whatever it is, I want to emphasize once again that I am not an extremist and have never been one. What I am accused of is just a fatal mistake. I am not guilty before God or the state.

Therefore, I ask you to find me innocent, acquit me and restore my good name, recognizing my right to rehabilitation.

Summary of the case

Region:

Kemerovo region

Locality:

Belovo

What is suspected of:

"He deliberately organized the continuation of the activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses MRO... by organizing the convocation and holding of a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses ... including through a program for organizing video conferences, conducting conversations in order to promote the activities of this prohibited organization" (from the decision on bringing as an accused)

Criminal case number:

12102320035000009

Initiated:

February 9, 2021

Current stage of the case:

the verdict has entered into force

Investigating:

The second department for the investigation of particularly important cases of the SU IC in the Kemerovo region – Kuzbass

Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

282.2 (1)

The number of the case in court:

1-71/2023 (1-395/2022)

Court of First Instance:

Belovsky City Court of Kemerovo region

Judge of the Court of First instance:

Galina Proschenko