Neftekumsk-Based Jehovah's Witnesses Convicted for Reading the Bible: One Received a Seven-and-a-Half Year Prison Sentence, the Other Two Received Hefty Fines

On April 19, 2022, Maksim Mazikin, judge of the Neftekumsk District Court of the Stavropol Territory, sentenced Konstantin Samsonov to 7.5 years in prison, he was arrested in the courthouse. Aleksandr Akopov and Shamil Sultanov each received a fine of 500,000 rubles, which has already been paid off on account of the time served in the pre-trial detention center. A written undertaking not to leave was taken from them.

The judge began to announce the verdict for the three believers on April 15. This process took three sessions, each of which lasted many hours, during which the defendants and listeners had to stand. Dozens of those who are not indifferent came to support believers from different cities of Stavropol Territory, as well as from Elista and Moscow. The prosecutor asked the court to sentence Samsonov to 9 years in prison, Akopov and Sultanov to 8 years each, but the court sentenced only Konstantin to prison. Believers consider the verdict unfair, it has not entered into force and can be appealed.

Even before the initiation of a criminal case, Neftekumsk believers faced an armed raid during a friendly meeting, surveillance and repeated searches. In December 2018, Samsonov, Akopov and Sultanov ended up in a pre-trial detention center. A. V. Astakhov, senior investigator of the FSB department of the Stavropol Territory, accused them of extremism (part 1 of article 282.2 and part 1 of article 282.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

After a year of imprisonment, the court replaced their arrest with a ban on certain actions. For more than two years, due to the restrictions imposed, they have been forced to wear special sensors that record their movements. Akopov could not receive the medical care he needed, and Samsonov could not work in his specialty (his family lives off the savings made before his arrest).

All the time the men were in jail, they were helped in every possible way by fellow believers. They financially and emotionally supported not only the prisoners themselves, but also their families, provided housing for the duration of court hearings in Stavropol. While behind bars, Samsonov, Akopov and Sultanov received letters from more than 28 countries. Shamil Sultanov recalls: "On one occasion they brought me about 70 letters at once." Konstantin Samsonov says: "Everyone in the pre-trial detention center was amazed at how many letters came to me from Russia and other countries." He read some passages aloud at the request of his cellmates.

The ECtHR, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention are just some of the organizations condemning the repression of Jehovah's Witnesses.