The Court of Cassation Left in Force the Harsh Sentence for Faith of Three of Jehovah's Witnesses from Akhtubinsk. They Will Continue to Serve Their Sentences in the Colony

 RUSSIA


The Court of Cassation Left in Force the Harsh Sentence for Faith of Three of Jehovah's Witnesses from Akhtubinsk. They Will Continue to Serve Their Sentences in the Colony

March 20, 2024 Astrakhan Region


On March 19, 2024, the Fourth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Krasnodar rejected the appeal of Sergey Korolev, Sergey Kosyanenko and Rinat Kiramov against the verdict of the first instance. The believers will remain in the colony.


Korolev, Kosyanenko and Kiramov have been imprisoned for more than two years for ordinary religious practices not related to extremist activities. Their lawyer emphasized this in the cassation appeal: "The court did not substantiate in its decisions why the peaceful way of expressing faith in God was regarded by it as a way of committing a crime."


The defense also pointed out in the cassation appeal that the verdict and the appellate ruling "were issued with significant violations of the law," namely: the court did not take into account that the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses is not prohibited; did not indicate the specific extremist actions of the defendants; did not provide evidence of illegal activity; did not establish motives for committing crimes. In addition, the court did not assess the violations during the examinations, in particular, the fact that the linguist N. V. Gromova invaded the competence of a religious scholar and tried to "conduct her own religious research."


Honorary Advocate of Russia, Professor Anatoly Pchelintsev said: "Jehovah's Witnesses as part of global Christianity are recognized and operate unhindered in most countries of the world and are banned only in some countries with a totalitarian regime ... Without guaranteed freedom of conscience, no state can be stable and prosperous."


The case of Korolev and Others in Akhtubinsk


Case History


On the morning of November 2021, searches and interrogations of Jehovah’s Witnesses took place in Akhtubinsk and Znamensk (Astrakhan Region). Some of them had previously been under surveillance. Law enforcement broke down doors, damaged property and forced both men and women to the floor. The Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case against Sergey Korolev, Rinat Kiramov and Sergey Kosyanenko, considering peaceful religious services as extremist activity. The believers were placed in a temporary detention facility and then in a pre-trial detention, where they spent over 1.5 years. In October 2022, the case went to court. Some prosecution witnesses, including the classified one, partially or completely renounced their preliminary testimony. In April 2023, the court sentenced Korolev, Kiramov and Kosyanenko to 7 years of imprisonment. Four months later, a court of appeal upheld the believers’ sentence. The сourt of сassation upheld this decision.


Criminal case


Region:

Astrakhan Region

Locality:

Akhtubinsk

Suspected of:

According to the investigation, "organized meetings ... including the use of video conferencing ... namely, in the form of collective religious worship consisting of the public reproduction of audio and video recordings... sequential singing of songs from a special collection of religious teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses and prayers to Jehovah God."

Court case number:

12102120006000100

Case initiated:

November 9, 2021

Current case stage:

The verdict entered into force

Investigating:

Akhtubinsk Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Astrakhan Region

Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:

282.2 (1), 282.3 (1)

Court case number:

1-9/2023 (1–342/2022)

Court of First Instance:

Court of First Instance:

Akhtubinsky District Court of the Astrakhn Region

Judge of the Court of First Instance:

Anatoly Proskurin


In the photo: 

1. Sergey Kosyanenko, Rinat Kiramov and Sergey Korolev in the courtroom, April 13, 2023

2. Irina and Galina, Rinat Kiramov's mother and spouse, in front of the court of cassation, March 2024.

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