In the photo: Andrey Ledyaykin was released from the pre-trial detention center after his sentence was commuted
An Appeal in Seversk Replaced the Prison Term of Andrey Ledyaykin With a Suspended Sentence
Tomsk RegionOn July 14, 2022, a panel of judges of the Tomsk Regional Court mitigated the sentence of one of Jehovah's Witnesses, Andrey Ledyaykin, 33, replacing the sentence of 2 years and 2 months in prison with a suspended sentence of the same term.
In July 2020, FSB and Investigative Committee officers, accompanied by two OMON fighters, arrived at Andrey Ledyaikin’s place of work, the administration of Seversk, to pick him up for a search of his home. After the Seversk Investigative Department opened a criminal case against Ledyaykin in March 2021, he was forced to resign. Rosfinmonitoring has included a peaceful believer in the list of extremists and terrorists.
On April 26, 2022, the judge of the Seversky City Court of the Tomsk Region, Yekaterina Soldatenko, sentenced Andrey Ledyaykin to 2 years and 2 months in prison with serving a sentence in a penal colony, although there were no victims and evidence of harm to the state and society in the case. Since then, Andrey has been held in pre-trial detention center No. 1 in the Tomsk region.
The believer still insists on his innocence and can appeal the decisions of the courts in cassation, as well as in international instances.
The courts of the Tomsk region have already sentenced 6 Jehovah's Witnesses for their faith, including an 80-year-old woman. On June 7, 2022, the ECHR declared illegal the liquidation of the administrative center and another 395 legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, which law enforcement agencies take as a basis for criminal prosecution, although not a single Russian court has banned the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses.
