Photo: Artem Gerasimov
Six Years in Prison Instead of a Fine. The Crimean Supreme Court on Appeal Did Not Commute, but Toughened the Sentence of One of Jehovah's Witnesses
CrimeaOn June 4, 2020 the Supreme Court of Crimea considered the appeal of Artyom Gerasimov, who asked to be acquitted. On the contrary, the court announced a tougher punishment for his talking about God: instead of a fine of 400 thousand rubles, he was sentenced to six years in prison. The believer was taken into custody in the courtroom.
Earlier, on March 5, 2020, the Yalta City Court sentenced Artyom Gerasimov to a large fine. The verdict was appealed.
"The decision of the Crimean Supreme Court brings religious persecution to a new level of brutality. After the ban on legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, the appeal instances have never toughened the punishment, realizing that there are no real crimes behind the charges against believers," said Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, pointing out that the judicial authorities ignore repeated demands of international structures to immediately stop repressing Jehovah's Witnesses.
Earlier, the court in Dzhankoy sentenced Sergey Filatov, a fellow believer of Gerasimov, to the same prison term.