The Court of Cassation in Pyatigorsk Finally Acquitted One of Jehovah's Witnesses Yuriy Zalipaev

On May 20, 2021 in the city of Pyatigorsk, the Fifth Court of Cassation of general jurisdiction finally confirmed the innocence of Yuriy Zalipaev, one of Jehovah's Witnesses from the city of Maisky. A panel of 3 judges chaired by Sergey Leontyev and judges Svetlana Harrasova and Andrey Zhelezny completely rejected the prosecutor's appeal of his acquittal verdict.

More than ten people came to the court building to support Zalipaev, but only the believer and his lawyer were allowed to the sitting. It is noteworthy that during the process the prosecutor did not support a number of claims stated in the cassational submission.

Earlier, on October 7, 2020, Elena Kudryavtseva, a judge of the Maysky District Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, fully acquitted Juriy Zalipayev, accused of "public calls for extremist activities" (part 1 article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). However, the prosecutor appealed this decision in a higher court.

Yuriy Zalipaev was not able to appear before the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic until January 22, 2021, since he and his family were infected with coronavirus infection after yet another search of his home. After hearing the arguments of the believer, Judge Fatimat Chechenova issued an appeal ruling - to uphold the acquittal verdict of the lower court.

On February 25, 2021 the Prosecutor Lukianov had to officially apologize to Yuriy Zalipaev for the harm caused by the unjust criminal prosecution. Nevertheless, the prosecutor's office still appealed the decision in the court of cassation, which eventually sided with the believer.

Courts of cassation of general jurisdiction appeared in Russia relatively recently, in 2018. One of their purposes is to check the legality of the rulings of the courts of first and appellate instances, which have entered into legal force. Cassation courts of the Russian Federation have already repeatedly protected the rights of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, in the Christensen case in Orel, the Levchuk and Britvin case in Berezovsky, the Abdullayev and others case in Makhachkala, the Savelyev case in Novosibirsk.

Meanwhile, the Maisky Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic is making new attempts to prosecute local Jehovah's Witnesses. In April 2021, Kirill Gushchin, a 40-year-old resident of Maiskoye, was prosecuted under Part 1 and Part 1.1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was initiated against Gushchin's wife, Svetlana, and 4 other women. A criminal case was also initiated against 7 women and 2 men from Mayskoye under Article 308 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (refusal to testify), since the believers took advantage of the right under Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation not to testify against themselves.