The last word of the defendant Sergei Chechulin in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

 RUSSIA 

The last word of the defendant Sergei Chechulin in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

April 18, 2024

Kamchatka Territory

The believer told the court that he grew up in a boarding school for orphans. He is grateful to the state for his happy, serene childhood and settled life. "Therefore, accusations of extremism came out of the blue for me," he said.

Transcript of the court session in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court dated 04/18/2024 in the case 1-70/2024 on charges of Chechulin Sergey Vyacheslavovich and Chechulina Elena Nikolaevna of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Chechulin Sergey Vyacheslavovich:

Your Honor, I am already an accomplished person in my life. Like any other person, I have my own views, worldview, some foundations and, of course, the meaning of life. There is no place for hatred, lies, and strife in them. I have peace, peace and confidence in the future in my heart.

My parents passed away early. I don't remember them, so I don't know what it's like when your mother takes care of you tenderly, what it's like when your father carries you in his strong arms. But the state took care of me. It became both a father and a mother to me. I grew up in an orphanage among children with the same fate. But I didn't need anything. The state fed, watered and clothed me, gave me education and practical skills, and also instilled in me life values — respect for elders, hard work. We learned to join the team, get along with each other. My childhood was happy and serene. There is an opinion that children from an orphanage become dysfunctional, but this is not the case. Everyone I went to boarding school with grew up to be good people. I think I am too. I owe my settled life to the state, especially at the initial stage. I am very grateful for that.

Therefore, for me, accusations of undermining the constitutional foundations of the state and extremism sounded like a bolt from the blue. It looks extremely unfair. After all, I could never even allow such a thing in my thoughts, let alone show it in practice.

Now I have my own family and my life together with my wife is focused on worshipping Jehovah God, our Creator, whose name is widely known and repeatedly mentioned in the Bible. Using the basic right of any person, namely the right to freedom of conscience and religion, we lead a quiet and peaceful life based on God's laws and principles. It gives us pleasure to explore the Scriptures, to reflect on them, to learn about God's qualities and intentions. None of us poses a threat to society, as everyone knows that Jehovah's Witnesses are a peaceful religion.

As you know, the family is a unit of society, its integral part. Any state is strong precisely because of families. When the moral decay of families occurred in ancient Greece, Greek civilization collapsed and was easily conquered by the Romans. In turn, the powerful Roman Empire weakened and fell into decline precisely because of the destruction of the institution of the family.

In my last word, I touched on the topic of family, since my wife and I also represent a separate unit of society, the Chechulin family, which is also an integral part of our state, and we suffer as a family from unfair accusations. Here, in the courtroom, we are forced to defend our right to profess religion, the right to believe in the Creator, whose name is Jehovah.

The year 2024 has been declared the Year of the Family by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. That's how important this topic is. None of us can say that the topic of family is not his topic, that he is far from it. We all came from a family. Our dads and moms raised us, educated us, instilled in us the norms of social behavior. Our children also create families and pass on life experiences and moral guidelines to their children themselves. It has always been like this, since biblical times.

In the Holy Scriptures, in the Gospel of Matthew, the 19th chapter, 5th and 6th verses, it is said about this: "Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh." As you can see, the family is one flesh, one indivisible whole in the eyes of God, it is the union of a man and a woman. This was intended by the Creator.

This idea is even enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in Article 72, in paragraph "g". It says, "Marriage is the union of a man and a woman." It's a very simple thought. But the world is such that other views of the family have appeared, perverted in their essence. Obviously, it was necessary to protect the institution of the family, which even had to consolidate this form of human existence by law. As you can see, the state understands how important families are for its existence, for prosperity, because love for one's neighbor, respect for traditions, assimilation of values — all this begins with the family.

But the family did not appear on its own. The family has its own Founder — Creator. When God brought his wife Eve to the first man Adam, at that moment the first family in the history of mankind appeared, well, we are all descendants of these first people. It is precisely because God Jehovah founded marriage that we find the best practical advice for the family in the Holy Scriptures. My wife and I try to apply these tips in our lives, helping others and supporting each other, especially in difficult times.

It is precisely this time in our family that is a difficult ordeal, as we are being criminally prosecuted for the right to religious beliefs, guaranteed to us by the most important law of the country — the Constitution of the Russian Federation and its guarantor, the President of the Russian Federation.

We are unfairly and unsubstantiated accused of hostility and hatred towards certain unidentified people by the prosecution. There is not a single name of a person whom we would insult, humiliate with our own words, or incorrectly compare his views, beliefs, race or gender with our own views and beliefs. But this did not stop the investigation from continuing to accuse us of hostility and hatred. We are also being declared extremists who undermine the foundations of the state and its defense capability. It's hard to comprehend when you realize that this is not the case, and the prosecution has not explained how this is even possible.

You can get angry, hold a grudge. But we don't do that. We understand that every Christian's faith is tested in different ways. Someone is seriously ill, but tries to please God every day they live, someone faces difficulties and disagreements in the family because of religious views, someone endures ridicule because of faith in the Creator, and so on. The fact that we are facing trial is our test. Jesus Christ in Matthew 10:17, 18 said: "You will be put on trial. Because of me, you will be taken to the rulers and kings so that they, as well as people from other nations, will hear about me." Thus, right here and now, the words of Christ are fulfilled that a testimony will be given, or, as Christ said, "that they may hear" about him.

Your Honor, dear Court, many of you were not very familiar with Jehovah's Witnesses, but thanks to these trials you were able to form your own idea of us. For example, you have seen that we are not dangerous; you have seen that the basis of our life is the worship of Jehovah, the Most High God, that we honor his Word — the Bible, read it every day and apply what we learn from it in our lives. The commandment "love thy neighbor as thyself" alone shows that we could not offend anyone by word or deed, because this could upset God.

You have learned that we lead a highly moral lifestyle. We don't smoke, we don't get drunk, we don't use swear words. Our documented conversations have shown that we use pure language, that ideas of hatred and hostility towards anyone are alien to us. This was confirmed by experts who carefully examined every word we said and found nothing extremist in our conversations.

You also saw that we are supported by our co-religionists, our spiritual brothers and sisters. Not a single meeting was held without their presence. We really appreciate their support, we are grateful to them for this and understand that it is impossible to do otherwise, because we are one family, not only within the country, but also on a global scale. The borders of the states do not prevent us from taking care of each other. One co-religionist, upon learning that I was being criminally persecuted as a Jehovah's Witness, told me: "Don't worry, 8.5 million people are praying for you." That's how many Jehovah's Witnesses there are in the world. This has greatly strengthened my wife and me and has given us the strength to continue defending ourselves in court. Our international brotherhood has not left us without physical, emotional and spiritual support.

In the Bible, in 1 Peter 2:17 it says: "Honor all, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king." Your Honor, as we can see, God expects us to "honor the king," or the state authorities. And we do this when we support the authorities, regularly pay taxes, comply with the laws, do not oppose the state, do not even develop a spirit of discontent, murmur against it, but on the contrary, we pray for them. Yes, we pray for the state authorities. And this is also part of our faith.

But the Bible also says, "Love brotherhood." What is a brotherhood? These are friends by faith. We are talking about a large global family. Yes, Jehovah's Witnesses are a big international family. We receive letters of support from all over the world. We received such letters from Canada, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, America, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Ethiopia. And everyone is talking as one: "We worry about you, we pray for you." They seem to be just words, but they show what a huge community of devoted friends exists on different continents. Isn't it wonderful to be part of such a family? This is a unique phenomenon for our time, when more than eight million people speaking different languages are united in the worship of God.

Your Honor, although I have never had close family relations with my mother and father, but I know that I have a huge close-knit family, some of which are sitting in the hall, right behind me. The author of Psalm 26 once said in verse 10, "Even if my father and mother leave me, Jehovah will accept me." My father and mother left me when they passed away early, but God, figuratively speaking, accepted me into his family, accepted my worship of him. And now I feel a warm, cordial and sincere attitude towards myself, similar to the one that exists in the family. I appreciate it. I can't help but appreciate it, even under the threat of persecution.

My wife and I are among those who really care about us, think about us, among those who are ready to help us in difficult times, to help, to support. We do the same with our spouse. We support each other both in the family and outside the family, we make sacrifices to help those who need help. We call ourselves in the family way - brothers and sisters.

In turn, God also has a "family" title. He calls himself a Father. Remember the famous prayer "Our Father". Jesus taught us to pray, addressing God like this: "Our Father is in heaven."

When I talk about such fraternal relations among friends of faith, I do not mean that we have shut ourselves off from the whole world and consider others unworthy of our attention, shun them or ridicule their views. No way! I've already talked about it. We think a lot about those around us. We are interested in their lives, maintain relationships with them, and participate in their lives. We also help them, comfort them with kind words and, of course, hope from the Bible.

Realizing that Jehovah's Witnesses make a significant contribution to the moral character of their countries, states in other places strongly support Jehovah's Witnesses, do not interfere with their activities, realizing that their service to people is for the benefit of the states themselves. And even if the situation in Russia is different, we have no reason to show a spirit of discontent, because our Creator likes that we obey the state authorities and do it willingly, without any compulsion, because our heart and our faith encourage us to do so.

Jehovah's Witnesses also have a positive influence on the people around them, because we are ordinary people and live among ordinary people. Every day we come into contact with colleagues, classmates and various employees, representatives of various government agencies, services, and so on. No one can accuse us of being irresponsible, disrespectful or rude. On the contrary, we are reliable employees at work, we are respectful visitors at receptions in government agencies or services, diligent students at school, loving husbands, wives, parents and children in families. Isn't this a reason to say that with our virtuous lives we contribute to the tranquility of the country, to its moral character?

Today our world is more divided than ever. Various extremist and terrorist groups drive a wedge between representatives of different peoples and religions and even commit terrorist attacks, monstrous terrorist attacks. It is impossible not to notice that in some cases the spirit of rivalry and nationalism manifests itself. What is missing now is simple warm relations, caring attitude towards others, the desire to strengthen them in word and deed, to be useful to others! And that's exactly what we do. We show others the good advice from the Bible, and the person who applies it gets better. Whoever was an addict overcomes this pernicious addiction. Some were drunkards, some were foul-mouthed, some were rude and cruel, and the Bible changed them. That is, they were changed not by some recognized extremist literature or organization, but by the Word of God. It's incredible! The justice system corrects people by punishing them for illegal actions, and the Holy Scriptures correct the thinking and motives that lead to actions. That's how important and useful our work is, our faith in God! I believe that my wife and I have faith in God, realized thanks to Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, can continue to have a positive impact on those who are next to us.

In the meantime, our colleagues are worried about what decision will be made. Our loved ones and our children are worried that the crime imputed to us entails imprisonment and may separate us, disrupt our joint plans. Our friends, including those in this Room, may think that their right to freedom of religion may also be infringed, as in our case.

Dear Court, Your Honor, considering all of the above, I believe that my wife and I should be acquitted. We have not committed any crime and do not pose a danger to society. Our children should not be separated from us, our friends should calmly sigh for us, rejoice in our freedom and offer their prayers for the authorities of the country, as stated in the biblical book 1 Timothy 2:1-3, where the Apostle Paul, addressing Christians, said: "So first of all, I ask you to make prayers, petitions, supplications Thanks for all men, for kings and for all rulers, so that we may lead a quiet and serene life in all piety and purity." After all, this is exactly the kind of "quiet and serene life in all piety and purity" that does not threaten anyone living next to us, we have led and are going to lead.

Summary of the case

Region:

Kamchatka Territory

Locality:

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

What is suspected of:

"Convening meetings, organizing collective religious performances and worship services, in accordance with the ideology of the religious association of Jehovah's Witnesses at these meetings. Conducted planned training with other persons on the postulates of the religious association of Jehovah's Witnesses" (from the resolution on the initiation of criminal proceedings)

Criminal case number:

12202300011000019

Case initiated:

September 25, 2022

The current stage of the case: 

Appeal

Is being investigated

by the SU IC of the Russian Federation for the Kamchatka Territory

Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

282.2 (1)

Case number in court:

1-70/2024 (1-997/2023)

Court of First Instance:

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court

Judge of the Court of first instance:

Ivan Pantyashin