Andrey and Nina Danielyan
On November 30, 2023, the panel of judges of the Eighth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Kemerovo, having considered Andrey Danielyan's complaint, finally approved the sentence of the first instance—6 years in a penal colony.
19 people who came to support Danielyan were admitted to the hearing. While the panel of judges was in the deliberation room, the audience was able to greet the believer participating in the meeting via video conferencing.
A year earlier, Judge Aleksey Bezrukov of the Rubtsovsk City Court of the Altai Territory found Danielyan guilty of extremism for discussing the Bible among fellow believers. And in January 2023, the Altai Regional Court approved this verdict.
The defendant's lawyer drew attention to the fact that the courts recognized the believer as an extremist without specifying specific extremist actions and motives for them, which is required by law. "The actions of the convict were natural within the framework of freedom of religion and were aimed at exercising, together with his co-religionists, constitutional rights that act directly and directly," the defender emphasized.
Andrey Danielyan, 54, is one of seven believers prosecuted in the Altai Territory. In addition to him, Pavel Kazadayev was sentenced to a real term in a penal colony in this region.
