The last word of the defendant Sergei Parfenovich in Krasnogvardeisky

 CRIMEA

 

The last word of the defendant Sergei Parfenovich in Krasnogvardeisky

June 26, 2024

Crimea

In his last word, the believer explained that the worship of God, for which he is being tried, took place peacefully and is not a crime. He stressed that even the prosecution witnesses "could not answer anything, thereby proving the entire inconsistency of their testimony."

Transcript of the court session in the Krasnogvardeysky District Court of the Republic of Crimea dated 06/26/2024 in the case 1-8/2024 on charges of Sergei Georgievich Parfenovich and Yuri Petrovich Gerashchenko of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Sergey Georgievich Parfenovich:

I want to start my last word with words of gratitude. First of all, I am grateful to you, Your Honor, for your generosity, long-suffering and respect that you have shown during this year of the trial. I am very grateful to you for always listening to me patiently and never interrupting me. It was a great honor for me to defend myself in front of you. Thank you for the warm atmosphere you have created during this process. Criminal prosecution is a huge stress, but thanks to the calm atmosphere, it was much easier for me to cope with it. Thank you, Your Honor, for going into the case file so carefully, although I dare say this is the first time in your practice. But you are a wise and insightful person, you were able to understand religious issues. Thank you for granting my request for medical examination. Thanks to this, I was able to check my health condition, which deteriorated significantly after experiencing and continuing stress. As far as I could get to know you, you are a kind and loyal person. And you have to make a difficult decision. But I assure you, whatever your decision is, I will not stop thinking well of you.

I am also grateful to you, Inna Valeryevna. It seems to me that you are the perfect secretary — kind, tactful, executive, modest. How much work have you put into all this writing! Thank you for the fact that we have never had difficulties in obtaining copies of the minutes and audio recordings of meetings. Any communication with you was pleasant for us. Thank you for everything!

I am also grateful to Inna Alexandrovna, the assistant judge. You turned out to be a kind and sympathetic person.

I am very grateful to you, Dmitry Vladimirovich, and to you, Sergey Georgievich, for your professional support. As lawyers, you also probably had to understand religious issues for the first time, but you have mastered them perfectly. Your questions and arguments are a vivid proof of that! Thank you for protecting Yura and me. With your help, it seems to me that we defended ourselves perfectly! Thank you very much!

I am grateful to you, Lenara Eyupovna, for the fact that no bias, malice or aggression emanated from you. During this year of meeting you, we have seen that you are a calm and kind person. And I am very sorry that we met under such circumstances on different sides of the fence. Thank you for respecting our religious views. We were very pleased when you corrected the prosecution witness who pronounced the name of God with the wrong emphasis. Thank you for that.

Please convey my gratitude to the employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service if I do not have such an opportunity. Over the past year and a half, they have always acted correctly, treating me with respect and kindness. Despite the fact that this is a supervisory authority, I have never experienced excessive stress, so I am grateful for this.

I am grateful to the court guards for their kind and respectful attitude towards me and my family members. They were always friendly and courteous. Thank them for that.

I want to say thank you to my children. You, as real friends, turned out to be there and helped my mother in every possible way while I was in jail. During these one and a half years, you have been supporting us and helping us. I am proud of you for the fact that these difficulties did not break you, but, on the contrary, hardened you. As I said, what the dishes are filled with will pour out from there. You have proved yourself faithful in this trial. Your firm and joyful attitude inspires me. Thank you.

I am also grateful to the many friends who supported me near the courthouse. It has always been a source of strength and encouragement for me! Every time, in the cold and in the heat, you waited for me at the courthouse just to greet me. And sometimes you had to wait for several hours, and you have your own affairs, worries, problems and difficulties. But you've been making this time available to me all year, and I'm very grateful for that. I will keep it in my heart, and these memories will warm my heart. And thanks to everyone who has been praying all this time for Yura and me. Your prayers continue to support us. This is an invaluable help! Thank you.

And words cannot express how grateful I am to my wife, Marishka, my public defender. Thank you, dear, for your devoted support, for your wise advice and recommendations. You helped me see many nuances in the case file. Thank you for your well-aimed questions that you asked the prosecution witnesses, some of which they simply could not answer, thereby proving the entire inconsistency of their testimony. You are my best and most devoted friend. You're with me for better or for worse. How happy I am that you are my wife! Thank Jehovah for giving you to me!

But most of all, I am grateful to my God Jehovah, who has supported me throughout this time. He was with me every day in the pre-trial detention center, did not leave me alone during the court sessions. He gave me the wisdom and insight to understand legal issues and helped me defend myself in court. He supports me now, I can feel it!

Now I want to talk about love, about my God and about his name. Why is it about this? Because, firstly, these are inseparable concepts. Secondly, it refers to the reason why I am here in the dock.

If you were asked to define what love is, how would you respond? It turns out it's not that easy! This word is constantly on our lips, and it is not surprising, since God is love, and we are created in the image and likeness of God. That is, they do not look like him outwardly, but are able to manifest the qualities of God, including love. The Bible gives this explanation of love: "Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or brag, it is not proud, does not behave indecently, does not act selfishly, does not get annoyed, does not count insults, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth, endures everything, believes everything, never loses hope, endures everything steadfastly. Love will always exist." Just think about it, this is what God Jehovah does. He is patient and kind, not jealous.

Now about the name of God. Everyone has a name. And each name has its own meaning. For example, the name Valentin means "healthy", "strong", "sturdy"; Sergei is of Latin origin and means "noble"; Inna means "stormy stream", and Lenara means "radiating light". The name Jehovah, which God chose for himself, is unique. It is a form of the Hebrew verb _hava with the meaning "to become". According to many scientists, it is a causative form of this verb. That is, this name indicates that the initiator of the action encourages someone or something to perform this action. Simply put, if Jehovah said something, we can assume that it has already been fulfilled. It doesn't matter how long ago he said it.

A simple example. In the Bible we read: "God said, 'Let there be light.' And the light appeared." Since then, sunlight has been reaching the Earth. Although it is something taken for granted for us and is available completely free of charge, this light is incomparably more valuable than electric light. Without sunlight, we would live in darkness, the Earth would cool down and turn into a block of ice. We and all living things on the planet would just freeze to death. What a blessing that no one can turn off this source of vital energy! Thanks to sunlight, plants grow that bear fruit to us in such a variety that it is difficult to grasp it with the mind. What prompted Jehovah to direct sunlight onto the Earth, and place the Earth at such a distance that the water on it would not freeze or evaporate? It is love!

Another example: "God created man in his own image, created him in the image of God. He created a man and a woman. Then God blessed them and told them, "Bear children, multiply, fill the earth, own it, and rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over all creatures that live on land." [...] God Jehovah planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and settled there the man he created to cultivate it and take care of it."

It was God's love that prompted him to create such a cozy home, Land, and create people who are able to think and act like him. Out of love, he shared the joy of life with us, the earthly children of God. He settled Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the most beautiful park. It was a perfect landscape that no designer in the world could replicate! Having settled Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Jehovah voiced for them his plan to give birth to children, fill the earth, expanding the boundaries of a beautiful park until the whole planet becomes such a park. According to God's plan, any corner of the Earth should be a cozy, comfortable place for a person. And by the way, it was not God's intention for Adam, Eve and their children to die. "You can eat the fruits of all the trees in the garden to your heart's content," God said and added, "Just do not eat the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat its fruit, you will surely die." Unfortunately, our grandparents did just that. That's why all people get sick, get old, and eventually die. Although people have filled the Earth, but probably only those places where no human foot has set foot can be called paradisiacal.

It is the meaning of God's name that gives me full confidence that paradise on Earth will be restored. A few thousand years after the terrible events in Paradise, God commanded a prophet to write down these words: "As rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return until they saturate the earth with moisture so that it becomes covered with greenery, bears crops and gives seeds to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so the words that come out of my mouth will not come back to me unfulfilled: they will fulfill my will and do what I sent them to do." If Jehovah said that according to his plan, people should live peacefully on Earth, nothing in the universe can prevent this. And it is love that motivates God to restore paradise conditions.

Jehovah has already done a lot for this! The most important event is the coming to Earth of God's most beloved son, here he was born as a perfect man. We know him as Jesus. The meaning of his name is "salvation from Jehovah." The purpose of his coming is to give his life as a ransom. A ransom is like a will of inheritance drawn up by a notary according to all the rules. A person can only come to a notary and claim the right to inheritance. Redemption is the most outstanding expression of God's love. The Bible says this: "God loves the world so much that He gave his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish, but would find eternal life."

In addition, Jesus introduced people to his heavenly Father. He was an exact copy of his father. Once he even said, "Whoever saw me saw my Father." In fact, everything that Jesus said and did exactly corresponds to what Jehovah himself would have said and done. No wonder Jesus taught to love people. After all, God is love. Jesus told his disciples: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if there is love between you." He even taught you to love your enemies! That's why Jehovah's Witnesses never take revenge. For the same reason, they will not take up arms to kill people, let alone any violence or hostility.

The prosecution believes that worship of Jehovah is extremism. It is for my participation in the divine service that I am in the dock. That is, in order for me to "repent", I need to give up worshipping Jehovah. I can't, and I don't want to do it! God is love, and his worship is based on love. And there is nothing illegal about it. I don't want to go to jail. But I love Jehovah, who has done so much for me in my life. I have talked a lot about the inconsistency of the charges and the lack of evidence of the crime that I am accused of. I ask you to drop all charges against me and the label of an extremist.

Please attach my words to the case file. Thank you.

Summary of the case

Region:

Crimea

Locality:

Krasnogvardeyskoye

What is suspected:

"Acting intentionally... he performed active actions of an organizational nature expressed in the organization of propaganda meetings at which the texts and religious provisions of the Jehovah's Witnesses were discussed" (from the decision on the election of a preventive measure in the form of detention)

Criminal case number:

12202350020000163

Case initiated:

September 19, 2022

Current stage of the case:

the verdict has not entered into force

Investigating:

GSU of the RF IC for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol

Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

282.2 (1)

Case number in court:

1-8/2024 (1-259/2023)

Court of First Instance:

Krasnogvardeysky District Court of the Republic of Crimea

Judge of the Court of First instance:

Valentin Shukalsky