Aliyev, Shulyarenko, Kriger and Zagulin Will Remain in the Penal Colony. The Court of Cassation Upheld the Harsh Sentence for Faith

On March 27, 2024, the Ninth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Vladivostok did not satisfy the cassation appeal against the verdict of Alam Aliyev, Sergey Shulyarenko, Valeriy Kriger and Dmitriy Zagulin. They will continue to serve time in Blagoveshchensk for their faith in God.

Earlier, in December 2022, the court of first instance sentenced Aliyev to 6.5 years in a penal colony, Shulyarenko and Kriger to 7 years each, and Zagulin to 3.5 years for allegedly organizing and financing extremist activity. In June 2023, the court of appeal reduced the prison sentences of Sergey Shulyarenko and Valeriy Kriger by only three months.

The believers were charged with holding 7 meetings for worship, as well as collecting voluntary donations for the general needs of the believers. However, the court did not cite a single excerpt from recordings of the meetings that promotes incitement to hatred or enmity. The cassation appeal states: "As a result of a miscarriage of justice, Aliyev, Zagulin, Kriger and Shulyarenko were convicted only because they professed beliefs based on the Bible and peacefully practiced their Christian faith as Jehovah's Witnesses." The defense also stressed that the verdict is based only on assumptions that the money was spent on extremist activity. However, neither the time, place, methods of collection, receipt, storage nor their expenditure were indicated. The court did not establish the motives for committing the crime, but declared the believers to be extremists.

The court completely ignored that Alam Aliyev has serious illnesses: hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus and problems with his spine.

The European Court of Human Rights responded to the complaint of Alam Aliyev and other applicants from Russia and ruled that charging Jehovah's Witnesses with extremist activity violates their rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The Court called on the Russian Federation to take all necessary measures to stop the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses and release them from prison.

In the Jewish Autonomous Region, 24 of Jehovah's Witnesses are being prosecuted for their religious beliefs. Half of them are married couples.