The Case of Kononenko and Others in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur

A. Borsuk, senior investigator of the Nikolaev-on-Amur Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region, initiates a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code against 60-year-old Igor Kletkin and 38-year-old Vladislav Markov. Searches are being conducted at the homes of Kletkin, Markov and 78-year-old Nadezhda Korobochko. Men are detained.

Igor Kletkin and Vladislav Markov are charged with committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Nadezhda Korobochko is being interrogated as a suspect in the case.

The City Court of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur rejects the petition of investigator A. Borsuk to detain believers. They are released in the courtroom.

Investigator A. Borsuk chooses Kletkin, Markov and Korobochko a measure of restraint in the form of a written undertaking not to leave and proper behavior.

The Khabarovsk Regional Court is considering appeals by the prosecutor against the refusal to detain believers. With regard to Igor Kletkin, the court leaves the decision unchanged, and toughens the measure of restraint for Vladislav Markov to prohibit certain actions.

The case of the believers proceeds to the stage of proceedings in the Nikolaev-on-Amur City Court of the Khabarovsk Territory. The referee is Roman Zhukov.

Judge Roman Zhukov establishes the identities of the defendants. He asks Igor Kletkin about his state of health and the presence of chronic diseases. Nadezhda Korobochko asks what higher educational institution she graduated from; from Nikolay Kononenko - at which faculty he studied.

All three defendants are filing resignations of their assigned counsel. The assistant prosecutor objects. The judge rejected the petition, citing the fact that the defendants do not have a legal education.

Preliminary hearing. The court decides to suspend the proceedings against Vladislav Markov and to continue the consideration of the remaining defendants.

The court does not satisfy the request to terminate the criminal case, and also does not attach to the case the decision of the ECHR, which decided to stop the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

The assistant prosecutor asks to refuse to attach the ECHR ruling, since "the ruling refers to another city and the materials on the decision of the European Court are not originals."

Court hearings against Igor Kletkin, Nadezhda Korobochko and Nikolai Kononenko begin. The prosecutor reads out the indictment. Believers voice their attitude to the accusation. They do not admit their guilt.

The defendant's neighbor Nadezhda Korobochko is being interrogated. She says that the believer did not involve her in any organizations. The interrogation is interrupted because the witness becomes ill, an ambulance is called and she is hospitalized.

The judge shall order the forced attendance of witnesses who have not appeared.

Interrogation of the prosecution witness - ataman of the Cossack army. He says that the defendants did not offer him religious literature, and he did not hear statements against state power from them. At the same time, the witness speaks negatively about Jehovah's Witnesses. The judge repeatedly reprimands him and asks him to restrain his emotions.

A witness for the prosecution, a woman with a disability, says she does not know any of the defendants. She says that when she was being treated in a neuropsychiatric dispensary, two young men came to her and drew up a protocol that she signed without reading.

A neighbor of the defendant Vladislav Markova reports four conversations with him on religious topics, she confirms that she dislikes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Another witness reports that Markov and Kononenko talked with her about the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses, offered brochures, and talked about the exclusivity of their faith. In her opinion, the phrase "Jehovah is the only true God" means the propaganda of exclusivity.

Judge Roman Zhukov rejects the petition of the prosecutor Vorokova to announce the testimony without summoning the 85-year-old witness to the court due to his advanced age and the presence of diseases.

With the use of video conferencing, the FSB operative Slivko is interrogated. He reports that he has not heard any disrespectful statements from the defendants towards the authorities, and adds that after the decision of the Supreme Court, Jehovah's Witnesses have the right to practice their religion. When asked by the judge for what purpose the defendants came to people's homes, he answers: "As part of their religious activities, they shared their thoughts, faith, religious beliefs." However, according to Slivko, this means involving people in the activities of a religious association, but the witness cannot name specific actions of each defendant in terms of "involvement".

Neighbor Nadezhda Korobochko is being re-interrogated. She partially confirms the testimony given during the preliminary investigation and states that the interrogation record contains allegations that she did not say, for example, that Korobochko made rounds of the apartments.

Interrogation of a secret witness under the pseudonym Shukshin, an 85-year-old neighbor of the defendant Nadezhda Korobochko and investigator Golovchenko.

The court rejects the request for disclosure of the data of the secret witness. Witness Shukshin informs the court that he attended worship services of believers until 2022. When asked by the prosecutor what was the involvement of other persons by the defendants in the banned organization, Shukshin answers: "They studied the Bible."

When asked by the defense when and where exactly Nadezhda Korobochko distributed the banned literature and whether he witnessed this fact, Shukshin replies that he saw it, but cannot confirm either the year, place, or the people to whom this literature was offered. Nor can the witness explain the difference between the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and other Christian denominations. He says that Jehovah's Witnesses are also Christians and that their worship services are not meetings of legal entities, but meetings of ordinary believers, and the name of the creed is taken from the Bible. The witness confirms that he has not seen a single case of disrespect for authority by believers.

Nadezhda Korobochko's elderly neighbor explains that she has been living next to the defendant since 1965, but met her only in 2022 - she was carrying a heavy bag, and Nadezhda helped her carry it. Since then, they saw each other several more times, greeted each other, and 2-3 times the defendant helped her carry purchases from the store.

When asked by the defense whether the witness confirms the words of the state prosecutor that Korobochko recruited her, the woman answers in the negative. She states that investigator Golovchenko tricked her into signing the protocol and the testimony in it did not correspond to reality. The woman says: "He gave me to sign some paper, said that it was necessary to close the case, I signed it. The fact that she recruited me was never like that. He wrote there that she persuaded me. She never persuaded me."

The court examines 3 volumes of written materials of the case.

Prosecution witness A. S. Zaikin is being questioned. He says that Jehovah's Witnesses study the regular Bible in a modern translation, and that they are normal people. The witness informs the court that he communicated with the defendant Igor Kletkin, but does not know Nikolai Kononenko and Nadezhda Korobochko. He also confirms that Kletkin did not continue the activities of the local religious organization after 2017.

The court examines material evidence - items seized during the search of Nadezhda Korobochko.

Nadezhda Korobochko testifies and reads out her written notes. She does not admit her guilt in extremism and states that it is alien to her beliefs and in fact she is being persecuted for her religious views. The believer draws the court's attention to the fact that the materials of the criminal case contain numerous errors and violations, and no evidence of her guilt was presented to the court; The testimonies of prosecution witnesses are contradictory, and most of those questioned in court retracted their testimony given during the preliminary investigation. Moreover, during the hearings it turned out that the investigator had distorted the testimony of witnesses. Therefore, Nadezhda Korobochko asks her to fully justify.

The court attaches to the criminal case documents on the presence of Nadezhda Korobochko's diseases, on awarding her with the medal "Children of War", as well as her pension certificate.

Igor Kletkin reads out his written notes.

The prosecutor shall request the examination of two prosecution witnesses not named in the indictment. Despite the objections of the defense, the court grants the petition.

One of the witnesses says that for about 7 years she spoke on the phone with Korobochko exclusively on religious topics. Basically, Nadezhda read her verses from the Bible. The witness says that she did not talk to the believer under duress and that the conversations stopped before 2017.

Items seized during searches from Vladislav Markov, Nikolai Kononenko and Igor Kletkin are being examined. Among them are issues of religious magazines for 2000 and 2004 "How to Get Closer to God", "Raising Children: Not an Easy Task", postcards thanking pharmacy workers for their work during the pandemic with links to Bible verses, personal photos, and a brochure "How to educate children to be responsive in the world of selfishness?".

The prosecutor asks Mykola Kononenko to give the password for the seized mobile phone. The believer says that 2 years have passed since the search and he does not remember the password. A tablet belonging to Kononenko's late mother, the password of which the defendant does not know, is also being examined.

Historian Maria Serdyuk is being interrogated. It tells about the past of Jehovah's Witnesses and describes the structure of a religious organization. When asked by the defendants, she replies that the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses is not prohibited in Russia and that they have the right to practice their religion within the law, as long as it does not involve the use and distribution of extremist literature.

The court satisfies the prosecutor's request for the appointment of a computer-technical examination of the items seized during the search of the defendants.

A woman with whom Nadezhda Korobochko periodically talked about the Bible is being interrogated. She confirms that she communicated with the believer for two years only on religious topics. The woman explains that the defendant never invited her to worship, did not say anything about refusing blood transfusions or about the superiority of her religion over others. The prosecution witness herself gave the believer her phone number, as she was interested in communicating with her.

Material evidence is being examined. Audio and video recordings extracted from the devices of Igor Kletkin and Nikolai Kononenko are examined. Believers point to the absence of signs of extremism in them.

Nikolay Kononenko gives additional testimony about audio and video recordings extracted from his tablet and phone. He states that the videos that were on mobile devices are not included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials and do not contain signs of incitement to religious hatred or superiority of one religion over another, but, on the contrary, are peaceful in nature. In order for the court to be able to make sure of this, Nikolay asks to watch these videos.

Nadezhda Korobochko reads out her additional testimony after the examination of computer and technical examinations. The defendant explains: "Although the examination established that the book 'The Bible – New World Translation' published in 2021 was downloaded to my laptop, it is not included in the list of extremist materials."

The believer adds: "Not one or two, but many witnesses were questioned in court, none of whom confirmed anything of the kind [the fact of distribution of extremist materials]."

The prosecutor requests 6 years in a penal colony for Igor Kletkin and Nikolay Kononenko; Nadezhda Korobochko – 5 years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 5 years.

The defendants make their final statements.