Court of Appeal in the Kemerovo Region Upheld the Verdict Against Pensioner Tatyana Sushilnikova — a 4-Year Suspended Sentence for Her Faith in Jehovah God

On January 16, 2024, a panel of judges of the Kemerovo Regional Court upheld the sentence of 64-year-old Tatyana Sushilnikova from Novokuznetsk — a 4-year suspended sentence for participating in the activity of an extremist organization.

According to the believer, the verdict of the court of first instance was reached with gross violations of the law and should be canceled. In her appeal, Sushilnikova noted that the court's decision does not contain a description of the illegal actions of which she was accused or specific dates and places when they were committed. Witnesses interrogated by the court admitted that they did not know Tatyana, did not talk to her on religious topics, and did not receive Bible literature from her. A sample of the believer's voice for forensic audio analysis was taken in violation of procedural norms.

"More than 200 pieces of evidence are listed in the verdict... [however] the court does not provide information on how they confirm my guilt. In particular, there are numerous references to personal notebooks, notepads, documents, etc., seized from third parties, in which I am not mentioned and which I have nothing to do with," Sushilnikova stated. Thus, the court considered telephone conversations with her husband to be part of the "evidence" of guilt, while audio recordings were not provided and, accordingly, the content of the conversations was not established.

Tatyana Sushilnikova said that the decision of the court of first instance in reality means the introduction of a ban on religion. She noted: "All my numerous references to the Bible, which requires Christians to worship God together, and was the real motive for my behavior, were not evaluated." By passing the verdict, the court ignored the explanation of the RF Supreme Court that the Russian legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses had been liquidated, and not the actual teachings. At the same time, the expressions mentioned in the verdict "Religious Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses", "International Religious Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses" and "Jehovah's Witnesses" are not legal entities and have not been liquidated by the Supreme Court.

The court of appeal refused to take Tatyana's arguments into account. A similar decision was made by the same court in March 2023 against the the believer's hudband, 67-year-old Sergey Sushilnikov, upholding his 6-year suspended sentence. Judge Zinovyev earlier also declared the detention of the Sushilnikovs' fellow believers, Maksim Morozov and Yuriy Usanov from the town of Taiga, as lawful.

Since the ban on the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017, more than 2,000 homes of believers have been searched, about 400 people have been imprisoned, and more than 730 believers have been charged with extremism.