Court Sentenced Two Jehovah's Witnesses from Moscow to 6 Years of Suspended Sentence

On August 8, 2022, the judge of the Golovinskiy District Court of Moscow, Sergey Bazarov, found Yuriy Temirbulatov and Aleksandr Serebryakov guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization and sentenced them to 6.5 years suspended sentence. The believers were released in the courtroom after a year and a half in jail.

The prosecution of Serebryakov and Temirbulatov was preceded by surveillance and hidden video recording in 2019. Investigator of the Investigative Committee for the Northern Administrative District of Moscow of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Mariya Rasskazova opened a criminal case on February 10, 2021. On the same day, armed officers from several law enforcement agencies broke into 16 homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow and the region.

The investigation lasted for almost a year, after which, on January 26, 2022, the case was transferred to the Golovinskiy District Court of Moscow. Although during the six months of hearings in court it was only proved that Temirbulatov and Serebryakov were Jehovah's Witnesses, the prosecutor asked that they be sentenced to 6.5 years of actual imprisonment. Although the court sentenced them to suspended sentences, believers consider the sentence unjust and can appeal against it.

“The investigation has no evidence that I committed extremist actions,” said Yuriy Temirbulatov, addressing the court. “The investigation and the state prosecution are trying to pass off the exercise of my right to freedom of religion, which is also expressed in the form of worship, as a prohibited activity.”

During the time in custody, believers were repeatedly transferred between different pre-trial detention centers in Moscow. Yuriy Temirbulatov remained under arrest despite numerous diseases of internal organs, a serious surgical operation during his imprisonment, an oncological disease that developed in the same period, the guarantee of human rights activist Andrei Babushkin and the presence of four dependents. Aleksandr Serebryakov had a hard time covid. His wife said: “I didn’t know how he feels, what he needs, who takes care of him, how they treat him . . . Only when he started to recover, I found out that Alek was on the verge of death.” During the investigation, Aleksandr Serebryakov was never granted a meeting with his wife, they communicated only through letters.

Speaking before the court with the last word, Aleksandr Serebryakov said: “For several years now, a mass campaign has been going on to denigrate peaceful citizens, to sow hatred and enmity towards Jehovah's Witnesses. There were cases of vandalism, beatings, torture, arson of houses and liturgical buildings . . . We are the only victims here. A year and a half behind bars, wives all this time without husbands, children without a father. All this resulted in stress, pain, tears, illness. I wonder who needs all this? Who got better?”

In Moscow, 2 more criminal cases against 8 believers are in court. In total, 13 Jehovah's Witnesses living in this region fell under criminal prosecution.