An Appeals Court Upheld the Acquittal of Three Jehovah's Witnesses from Karpinsk

On September 15, 2022, the Seventh General Jurisdiction Court of Cassation in Chelyabinsk refused to satisfy the prosecutor's cassation submission and upheld the acquittal of Aleksandr Pryanikov, Venera and Darya Dulova.

The criminal persecution of believers began in June 2018, when police detained Aleksandr Pryanikov and Venera Dulova, who had disability of hearing, while talking about Bible topics. A month later, a criminal case was opened against them, accusing them of participating in the activities of an extremist organization for discussing the Bible. A year later, the third defendant in the case was the daughter of Venera, Darya Dulova.

The court of first instance issued a guilty verdict in January 2021, but in August an appeals court in Yekaterinburg overturned it and returned the case to the court of first instance. As a result of repeated hearings in the new composition, the court again sentenced the believers to suspended sentences. In the spring of 2022, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court overturned the decision of the court of first instance and acquitted the believers. But the prosecutor filed a cassation presentation with the Seventh Court of Cassation.

Aleksandr Pryanikov, Venera and Darya Dulova are defendants in another criminal case initiated for their faith on similar charges.