Court of Appeal in Irkutsk Upheld Verdict Against Nine Jehovah's Witnesses

On December 12, 2024, the Irkutsk Regional Court upheld the sentence against nine Jehovah's Witnesses. Earlier, the court of first instance had sentenced them to various terms of imprisonment in a penal colony. The believers maintain their innocence and have the right to appeal the verdict in cassation proceedings.

As noted by the defense, the meetings of worships in which the convicted Jehovah's Witnesses participated had nothing to do with the liquidated legal entities. Nevertheless, Sergey Vasiliyev was found guilty of participating in the activity of an extremist organization (Article 282.2(2) of the RF CrC), the rest were found guilty of organizing the activity of an extremist organization (Article 282.2(1) of the RF CrC); six of them were also found guilty of financing it (Article 282.3(1) of the RF CrC). Aleksey Solnechny, commented during the closing arguments: "I am charged with allegedly collecting funds... However, there is no concrete proof that I collected and transferred funds specifically for the needs of extremist organizations and specifically for extremist purposes. The verdict does not mention such evidence."

Mikhail Moysh has two minor children. The believer's wife, Yelena, said: "Nikita [the eldest son — Ed.] misses his father; they only talk on the phone and during visits. The youngest son, David, was 6 months old when Misha was arrested. When I manage to take him on visits, he doesn't recognize his daddy." At the appeal hearing, Mikhail's lawyer asked the judicial panel: "Why then did the court recognize M.F. Moysh having young children of as a mitigating circumstance? In order to impose an even harsher punishment than the prosecutor requested?" The court's position regarding Andrey Tolmachev, who spent about 2.5 years in solitary confinement, has not changed either. He is the only son of elderly parents: his father has a disability, and due to health reasons his mother is unable to provide her husband with proper care.

In his final statement, Sergey Vasiliyev, who had fully served his sentence in a pretrial detention center and under house arrest before the appeal hearing, explained that his faith in God changed his life for the better: "I stopped swearing, quit smoking and began learning to love people. In total, it took me 9 years to overcome all the negative things within me with the help of Jehovah God. After that, for almost 20 years, the state had nothing on me. And suddenly, in 2021, there were searches and I was arrested. For what? Because I studied the Bible and tried, like Jesus Christ, to do good to people."

It is noteworthy that neither the Oktyabrskiy District Court of Irkutsk nor the Irkutsk Regional Court questioned the expert Elbakyan, although in the first instance she was waiting in the courthouse to be questioned, having flown from Moscow to the hearing to testify. Yekaterina Sergeyevna is a well-known Russian religious scholar. At the appeal hearing, one of the lawyers noted: "This is the only specialist who has examined all the meetings for worship mentioned in the charges against our clients." Another lawyer emphasized that the refusal to interrogate is a serious violation of the RF Criminal Procedural Code: "If this motion is not satisfied, then I believe that the appellate ruling will be unlawful." In the end, the panel of judges rejected all motions filed by the defense.

The criminal case against the Irkutsk believers received wide publicity, since the mass searches were accompanied by torture and violence by law enforcement officers, for which they have not yet been held responsibile.