PROSECUTION IGNORES POSITION OF SUPREME COURT IN CASE OF NEFTEKUMSK JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Kavkazskii Uzel, 14 April 2022
The prosecutor demanded that three believers from Neftekumsk be sentenced to lengthy terms in a penal colony despite the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court that meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses should not be considered extremism, the defense lawyer for the defendants and a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses pointed out.
As Kavkazskii Uzel has written, the trial in the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses Konstantin Samsonov, Alexander Akopov, and Shamil Sultanov began in Neftekumsk district court in February 2021. The criminal case is very voluminous and was under consideration for a long time, the lawyer for the defendants, Denis Vladimirov, suggested.
Neftekumsk residents Samsonov, Akopov, and Sultanov spent almost a year in the investigation cell on a charge of extremism, after which on 5 December 2019 the court mitigated for them the measure of restriction to a ban on certain activities. The believers are not only charged with arranging extremist activity but also with financing it. A fourth believer, Aleksei Shcherbich, also is accused of financing an extremist organization. In February 2021, it was learned that because of restrictions imposed by the court, the defendants are not able to return to work and they are experiencing complications with medical aid.
The prosecutor requested lengthy sentences of imprisonment for the defendants.
The announcement of the sentence is scheduled for 15 April, the defendants' lawyer Denis Vladimirov told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent. "The defendants have already delivered their final word at the last session of the court on 31 March. The prosecutor requested sentences for them of 8 and 9 years incarceration," he said.
The lawyer said that the judicial process turned out to be lengthy. It went on more than a year and consisted of more than 70 sessions. The investigation, and then the prosecution in court, basically adhered to the outline that was set forth in the indictment, the lawyer pointed out.
"In court there were no new facts that would strengthen the original charge. They practiced it. The prosecution was constructed on transcripts of audio and video recordings of worship services of this group. The outline of the indictment was not changed even after the adoption of amendments to the resolution of the plenum of the Supreme Court regarding the issue of extremism. The changes pointed out that an investigation must prove that citizens actually are continuing the activity of a liquidated legal entity and were not simply engaged in religious matters. The investigation did not respond especially to these changes in the application of the law but maintained the previous line and insisted on the guilt of the defendants," Vladimirov explained.
"In the event of the adoption by a court of a decision that has taken legal effect concerning the liquidation or ban of the activity of a public or religious association or of another organization in connection with the conduct of extremist activity, subsequent actions by persons that are not connected with the continuation or the revival of the activity of a particular extremist organization and consisting exclusively in the exercise of one's right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religious confession, including by means of individual or group profession of religion or conducting worship services or other religious rituals and ceremonies, in and of themselves, if they do not contain signs of extremism, do not constitute the crime envisaged by part 2 of article 282.2 of the CC RF (Arranging the activity of an extremist organization)," the ruling of the plenum of the Russian Supreme Court of 28 October 2021, No. 32, "On introducing changes in several rulings of the plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for criminal cases" said.
During the judicial investigation, "serious inconsistencies and errors in registration were revealed," the lawyer added. "For example, in transferring information from ORM (security agents engaged in operational search events—Kavkazskii Uzel note), the investigator dated files with a year that still has not even occurred. The investigation explained these mistakes as "imperfect technology." Materials were registered carelessly. Thus, for example, disks with notes were marked in a date with some numbers while the investigation had other numbers. Even the judge had difficulty reviewing these materials," Denis Vladimirov described.
The defense filed several petitions for recognizing some evidence as inadmissible because it was acquired in violation of norms of the Criminal Procedure Code. "The judge rejected all petitions, although he could explain the reasons why he thought such bad faith registration of evidence permissible only with general phrases," Vladimirov noted.
The side of the defense thinks that the defendants are innocent, since they were exercising their constitutional right to freedom of religious confession. "We proved that the meetings that they conducted were not meetings within the context of liquidated legal entities. They were not sessions of a banned legal entity but were meetings of believers in their private homes where they considered their religious literature. Even one of the key expert witnesses in the case admitted the meetings were worship services," Vladimirov explained.
Despite all that, the prosecutor's office insists on real and long terms of imprisonment, he complained. "The harshness of the prosecution and its demand for huge terms are not understandable. Throughout the trial the 'herbivorous nature' (absence of a propensity for extremism—Kavkazskii Uzel note) of the defendants was obvious. This was shown by both the documents and the witnesses whom we questioned. No form of violence or threat of violence came from them. Thus none of the witnesses stated that they wanted to deprive someone of property or demanded anything," the lawyer said.
He said that throughout the whole time of the trial, the three defendants remained under restrictions on certain activities. In particular, they were forbidden to contact the news media for themselves. They also wore tracking devices.
Not much is known about the fourth defendant, Aleksei Shcherbich, from the materials of the case which were available in court sessions, the lawyer added. "His case was parceled out into a separate proceeding. Apparently he is on a wanted list," Vladimirov said.
Prosecution's position in Neftekumsk is typical for criminal prosecution of believers.
The case of the Neftekumsk Jehovah's Witnesses went "according to the standards of similar trials of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia," a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, Yaroslav Sivulsky, told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.
"The indictments everywhere are standardized. The contents of the crime with which they are charged are standardized. The investigation tries to portray ordinary religious activity, which, as the Supreme Court has twice explained does not constitute the essence of a crime, as the activity of an extremist organization. But law enforcement personnel stubbornly, without heeding common sense, and not heeding the Supreme Court's call not to punish believers for their ordinary religious activity, continue to indict them for reading the Bible and gathering in a family circle," he said.
The court did not consider the defendants to be socially dangerous and did not hold them in custody, but at the same time the prosecution requested "incredible terms of imprisonment" for them, Sivulsky pointed out. "It is an absurdity that has reached unimaginable limits," he said.
He said that in some regions, after the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court, more lenient sentences have been issued, not involving imprisonment—a fine or a suspended term. "But there also have been some sentences of lengthy terms. Jehovah's Witnesses have been sentenced to a maximum of 8 years incarceration. There is no common logic to these sentences, Yaroslav Sivulsky said.
Believers' families support one another.
For the family of Konstantin Samsonov, the trial created a difficult situation, Samsonov's wife, Svetlana, told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent. In particular, many acquaintances and friends wound up on the list of people with whom her husband was forbidden to communicate because of the restrictions imposed.
"In the [biblical] letter to the Hebrews, 13.5, it is written: 'I will never leave you and never forsake you.' This and other biblical verses helped in this difficulty situation to maintain love and family warmth. We even managed to help others. We brought them produce when they were ill with the coronavirus and they could not leave the house. Others visited, supported, and prayed for my husband and for our family and helped in both word and deed. We are grateful to all for the help," she noted.
She said that Konstantin Samsonov and other defendants throughout the trial asked for a change in the measure of restriction. "The prosecutor opposed it and the judge did not mitigate the restrictions. During the trial my husband did not travel beyond the limits of the city," the wife of the defendant said.
Those with whom the defendants were not forbidden to communicate continued fellowship with them and helped their families, who could in one or another situation have difficulties, Vladimir, a friend of the defendants, and the public defender for Shamil Sultnov told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.
"After the change in the measure of restriction (after the SIZO) Shamil Sultanov was out of work for some time, but he was reinstated and he was able to earn money for his family," he noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 April 2022)
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