In Tolyatti, the court found Alexander Dolganov guilty of extremism

 RUSSIA 

In Tolyatti, the court found Alexander Dolganov guilty of extremism

April 9, 2024 Samara region

On April 8, 2024, the hearings in the case of 35-year-old Alexander Dolganov ended in the Avtozavodsky district Court of the city of Tolyatti. In one session, Judge Anna Tokareva heard the arguments of the parties and the last word of the defendant and immediately handed down a sentence of 3 years in prison.

The persecution of the believer began in May 2023. The investigator of the IC for the Samara region, Anatoly Grekov, singled out the case against Alexander from the criminal case against his co-religionist Alexander Chagan. For reading and discussing the Bible and Christian teachings, Dolganov was accused of participating in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He and several other believers were searched. Dolganov was placed in an IVS, and then under house arrest. Alexander said: "Due to the ban on leaving the apartment, using a mobile phone, the Internet and mail, I lost the opportunity to provide for my family, so this responsibility fell on my spouse."

Two months after the investigation, Dolganov's case went to court. At the hearing, the prosecution presented a standard set of evidence: hidden videos of peaceful worship services made by an embedded agent, testimony from a classified witness and psychological and religious expertise. The defense side stated that the latter is unacceptable evidence, since it was obtained in violation of the law, the specialists who performed it — Lenar Galiev and Kirill Kirushin from Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical University — did not have a specialized education, and therefore the right to prepare an examination.

Galiev and Kirushin had previously prepared expert examinations on the cases of other Tolyatti Jehovah's Witnesses, who also unsuccessfully asked the court to exclude these materials from the case. The embedded agent, a woman, had also previously participated in lawsuits against other believers from Tolyatti. Testifying in the Dolganov case, she did not hide her negative attitude towards Jehovah's Witnesses on a confessional basis, and also admitted that she did not personally know the defendant and could not bring any specific charges against him.

Speaking with the last word, Alexander said: "I have never hidden and will not hide my faith in the living God. I like to learn about the Creator, gain knowledge from the Holy Scriptures, and share what I have learned with other people. On the videos provided by the prosecution, there are no calls for violence, overthrow of the constitutional order, disrespect for government officials, severance of family and family ties, because all this is alien to me and my friends."

In the Samara region, 10 believers faced criminal prosecution, most of them have already been sentenced to various forms of punishment for their religion.

The Dolganov case in Tolyatti

A brief history of the case

In May 2023, in Tolyatti, employees of the Investigative Committee and the FSB broke into the homes of four families of believers. A criminal case was opened against Alexander Dolganov for his faith. After the interrogation, he was placed under house arrest for 85 days, and then under a ban on certain actions. In July 2023, the case went to court. The prosecution was based on the testimony of two witnesses who cooperated with the investigation. One of them, who secretly videotaped the services, admitted that she did not know the defendant personally, but had a negative attitude towards Jehovah's Witnesses. It also turned out at the trial that the specialists who conducted the psychological and religious expertise did not have the necessary qualifications. In April 2024, the court sentenced Alexander to 3 years in prison.

Summary of the case

Region:

Samara region

Locality:

Tolyatti

Criminal case number:

12302360032000240

Case initiated:

May 15, 2023

The current stage of the case:

Appeal

Is being investigated by:

The Central Interdistrict Investigative Department for the city of Tolyatti of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Samara region

Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

282.2 (2)

Case number in court:

1-72/2024 (1-978/2023)

Court of first instance:

Avtozavodsky District Court of Tolyatti.

Judge of the Court of first instance:

Anna Tokareva