Case of Zagulina in Birobidzhan

D. Yankin, a senior investigator-criminalist of the investigative department of the FSB of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region, initiates 6 criminal cases for faith against 6 women at once: 57-year-old Irina Lokhvitskaya, 26-year-old Anna Lokhvitskaya, 26-year-old Tatyana Sholner, 35-year-old Tatyana Zagulina, 40-year-old Anastasia Guzeva and 41-year-old Nataliya Kriger . All six women are charged with part 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to investigators, they resumed the activities of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Birobidzhan, which was liquidated in 2016, as well as the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. (Earlier, the defendants in the criminal case under similar articles were the husbands of Natalia Krieger, Tatyana Zagulina and Anastasia Guzeva - Valery Krieger, Dmitry Zagulin and Konstantin Guzev. And Irina and Anna Lokhvitsky were prosecuted after their son and husband Artur Lokhvitsky.)

FSB investigator D. Yankin is initiating another case under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation against 44-year-old Andrey Gubin. On the same day, I. Fedorov, a senior investigator of the FSB Investigation Department, opened a similar case against 55-year-old Oleg Postnikov. (A total of 19 criminal cases were initiated against 22 believers in the city.)

Investigator of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region D.S. Yankin charges Tatyana Zagulina with committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The investigator of the FSB of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region Yankin D.S. chooses Tatyana Zagulina a preventive measure in the form of a written undertaking not to leave and proper behavior.

The materials of the criminal case with the indictment against Tatyana Zagulina are sent to the prosecutor.

The case is transferred to the Birobidzhan District Court and transferred to Judge Yulia Tsykina.

A preliminary hearing of the case is underway. The believer makes a number of petitions. Judge Yulia Tsykina gives the prosecutor time to prepare her comments on these motions.

Referee: Yulia Tsykina. Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region (Pionerskaya Street, 32).

The trial in the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region begins with the interrogation of prosecution witnesses. The first witness is an employee of a café where believers held weddings and vacations with children, which the prosecution is trying to present as one of the meetings of members of a banned organization. The witness confirms that the believers spent friendly evenings in the café, behaved "decorously and nobly, ate, drank tea, danced, no problems arose."

The second witness for the prosecution is that of another believer from Birobidzhan, Larisa Artamonova, who was witnessed during a search in the apartment of elderly parents. Looking at Tatyana Zagulina and her lawyer, he asks which of them is the defendant.

The witness talks about the circumstances of the search in the Artamonovs' apartment, noting that there were no calls for extremism or incitement to religious hatred from the believers.

Judge Yulia Tsykina rejects 3 petitions of Tatyana Zagulina. One of them is about the inadmissibility of interrogating prosecution witness Zvereva (a police officer who participated in operational-search activities against Birobidzhan believers in 2015-2016, when literature was planted in the worship buildings of Jehovah's Witnesses, she also testified at the hearings in the cases of Yevgeny Golik and Anastasia Sycheva). Motions for publicity of the trial and for the recognition of some evidence as inadmissible are also rejected.

Witness Zverev is being interrogated. She notes that she has not heard any extremist appeals from either Zagulina or any other participant in the services of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to her, Tatyana was a simple listener at religious meetings, and the meetings themselves were held peacefully, the topics of family and raising children were discussed.

A witness for the defense, a former classmate of Tatyana Zagulina, whom she has known since 2001, is speaking. She describes her as "a gentle, good-natured person, sympathetic, cheerful, calm and non-confrontational." "He lives according to the laws of the Bible," the witness adds.

The judge satisfies the motions to attach the characteristics of the defendant to the case file and to view video recordings.

The next meeting is scheduled for February 19, 2021 at 14:15.

At the court session, videos of biblical speeches are watched, in which listeners are encouraged to develop good qualities, fight bad habits and help each other.

Tatiana comments: "It is clear from the video that we [Jehovah's Witnesses] not only maintain spiritual and moral, but also physical purity. We were taught to take care of our appearance, to observe personal hygiene, thereby taking care of our neighbors, of each other. Is this extremism? On the contrary, we learn only useful things."

The prosecution requests 4 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony and 2 years of restriction of freedom for Tatyana Zagulina, with the obligation to report to the Federal Penitentiary Service twice a month. On March 31, 2021, at 5:00 p.m., the believer will deliver her last word in court.

Tatyana Zagulina resolutely denies the guilt of extremism, emphasizing that she is in the dock solely for her faith. According to the believer, she did not commit any crimes and did not harm anyone. Even the actions of the security forces during the search were aimed not at an unbiased search for manifestations of extremism, but at proving that Tatyana Zagulina professes the religious views of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The court sets the date for the announcement of the verdict: April 1, 2021.

Judge Yulia Tsykina finds Tatyana Zagulina guilty and sentences her to 2 years and 6 months of suspended imprisonment and 2 years of restriction of liberty.

The court of the Jewish Autonomous Region does not satisfy the appeal of Tatyana Zagulina. The verdict comes into force.

The Ninth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Vladivostok upholds the sentence of Tatyana Zagulina - 2 years and 6 months suspended.

Judge N. A. Shibanova satisfies the petition for the cancellation of the suspended sentence and the removal of the criminal record from Tatyana Zagulina. Now the believer is considered unconvicted.