A Novosibirsk appeal upheld 67-year-old Yuriy Savelyev's verdict: six years in prison for practicing his faith

On April 5, 2021, the Novosibirsk Regional Court upheld the verdict of the Leninsky District Court of Novosibirsk against the 67-year-old pensioner Yuriy Savelyev. He had been sentenced to 6 years in a general regime colony.

The verdict entered into force. The believer still insists on his innocence. He has the right to appeal against the verdict in cassation procedure, as well as in international instances.

The prosecution requested 8 years in prison for the elderly believer, but on December 16, 2020, the judge of the Leninsky District Court of Novosibirsk, Yekaterina Kashina, reduced his term by two years.

Yuriy Savelyev has been behind bars for more than two years. He ended up in a pre-trial detention center immediately after a raid in Novosibirsk in November 2018, and his detention was continually extended. All the while, he tries to maintain a positive attitude and counts every letter he receives from his friends and fellow believers. As of March 9, 2021, he received a total of about 14,000 letters from 82 countries around the world.

The charge against Yuriy Savelyev was based on the conclusion of Oleg Zayev, a teacher of "sectology" from an Orthodox theological institute. At the trial, he made no secret of his personal animosity towards Jehovah's Witnesses because of their religion. The case also features a secret prosecution witness under the pseudonym "Ivanova", who did not appear at any court hearing. Judge Kashina allowed her affidavit to be read out in violation of the believer's right to a fair trial.

On March 10, 2021, the Eighth General Jurisdiction Court of Cassation in Kemerovo declared Savelyev's imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center unlawful during the trial, which lasted 413 days.

In the Novosibirsk region, 3 more criminal cases against 6 believers are currently at different stages of proceedings.

The beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses are not prohibited by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The right to freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Russian Constitution. In February 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: "In the consideration of the case [in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation], neither the legitimacy of the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, nor the ways of expressing them, were assessed." Despite this, Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia continue to be sentenced to prison terms only because of their faith.