Case of Shmidt in Sevastopol
-
#
June 23, 2019
FSB officer A. A. Dmitrienko makes inquiries and establishes that Igor Schmidt, together with other believers, takes part in religious services, which is interpreted as "organizing the activities of a banned religious organization."
-
#
September 24, 2020
Senior Investigator for Particularly Important Cases of the Investigative Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol S. A. Bosiyev initiates a criminal case against Igor Schmidt on suspicion of organizing the activities of an extremist organization under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
-
#
October 2, 2020
The Leninsky District Court of Sevastopol sends Igor Schmidt to pre-trial detention center No. 1 of Russia in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
-
#
March 23, 2021
The Court of Appeal changes the measure of restraint for a believer to house arrest. He spent about 6 months in the pre-trial detention center.
-
#
March 30, 2021
The materials of the criminal case of Igor Schmidt are received by the Gagarinsky District Court of the city of Sevastopol.
-
#
April 22, 2021
The first court hearing in the case of Igor Schmidt is underway. Listeners who come to support the believer are allowed into the hall.
Judge Lyudmila Tumaykina rejects the accused's petition to mitigate the measure of restraint from house arrest to prohibition of certain actions and satisfies the request to familiarize herself with the materials of the criminal case. Schmidt remains under house arrest until at least September 30, 2021 inclusive.
-
#
June 28, 2021
The court is questioning two witnesses. None of them can confirm that Jehovah's Witnesses voiced calls inciting religious hatred against other religions. They have never heard believers urge them to disobey the authorities or to refuse to perform their civic duties. The men interrogated by the court admit that the believers did not force them to attend services or to make donations. When asked whether they noticed any aggression or bitterness at meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses, the interrogated respondents reply that the believers, on the contrary, "treated each other humanly, with understanding."
-
#
October 19, 2021
In the Gagarinsky District Court, the debate of the parties begins. Igor Schmidt speaks about the prosecution witness Sergey Korkushko, who previously testified against Viktor Stashevskiy, who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison: "[He] is not known to me or to other witnesses as a person who has ever attended Christian services of Jehovah's Witnesses, but he is known as a provocateur who is used by the FSB to illegally and shamefully persecute Jehovah's Witnesses in Sevastopol. This witness gives knowingly false and contradictory testimony. Also, these testimonies are word for word identical to the testimony of FSB officer Dmitrienko, which indicates their falsification.
"All the materials in the case prove exclusively that I belong to the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, which has not been banned in Russia by any court," Schmidt adds.
The prosecutor asks the court to sentence the believer to 7 years in a penal colony.
-
#
October 22, 2021
Judge Lyudmila Tumaykina found the believer guilty and sentenced him to 6 years in prison in a penal colony.
The last word of the defendant Igor Schmidt in Sevastopol -
#
December 24, 2021
Sevastopol City Court (Sevastopol, Suvorov Street, 20). The hearing has been postponed to January 13, 2022.
-
#
January 13, 2022
The Court of Appeal in Sevastopol rejects Igor Schmidt's appeal against the verdict handed down by the Gagarinsky District Court. The verdict comes into force.
-
#
January 14, 2022
-
#
January 31, 2022
Igor Schmidt was sent to Krasnodar for further transfer to the colony. It is still unknown where the believer will serve his sentence for believing in God.
-
#
February 21, 2022
It becomes known that Igor Schmidt arrived at the Correctional Colony No. 10 in Rostov-on-Don. He is in quarantine.
Two more believers, Aleksandr Ivshin and Aleksandr Parkov, are serving their sentences in the same colony.
-
#
March 4, 2022
The lawyer visits Igor Schmidt and Alexander Ivshin at Penal Colony No. 10 in Rostov-on-Don. They feel good and maintain a positive attitude.
At the moment, four more Jehovah's Witnesses are serving their sentences in the same colony: Aleksandr Parkov, Sergey Filatov, Artem Gerasimov , and Aleksandr Shcherbina.
-
#
March 2, 2023
The Fourth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Krasnodar leaves the verdict against Igor Schmidt unchanged. The believer is grateful to his fellow believers from Krasnodar who came to support him. After the announcement of the decision, he was able to chat with friends, which especially touched him.
-
#
May 5, 2023
In the colony, Igor sews medical gowns. The administration treats him well. The believer regularly receives parcels from his relatives.