The Court of Cassation Left in Force the Harsh Sentence for Faith of Three of Jehovah's Witnesses from Akhtubinsk. They Will Continue to Serve Their Sentences in the Colony

On March 19, 2024, the Fourth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Krasnodar rejected the appeal of Sergey Korolev, Sergey Kosyanenko and Rinat Kiramov against the verdict of the first instance. The believers will remain in the colony.

Korolev, Kosyanenko and Kiramov have been imprisoned for more than two years for ordinary religious practices not related to extremist activities. Their lawyer emphasized this in the cassation appeal: "The court did not substantiate in its decisions why the peaceful way of expressing faith in God was regarded by it as a way of committing a crime."

The defense also pointed out in the cassation appeal that the verdict and the appellate ruling "were issued with significant violations of the law," namely: the court did not take into account that the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses is not prohibited; did not indicate the specific extremist actions of the defendants; did not provide evidence of illegal activity; did not establish motives for committing crimes. In addition, the court did not assess the violations during the examinations, in particular, the fact that the linguist N. V. Gromova invaded the competence of a religious scholar and tried to "conduct her own religious research."

Irina and Galina, Rinat Kiramov’s mother and spouse, in front of the court of cassation, March 2024

Honorary Advocate of Russia, Professor Anatoly Pchelintsev said: "Jehovah's Witnesses as part of global Christianity are recognized and operate unhindered in most countries of the world and are banned only in some countries with a totalitarian regime ... Without guaranteed freedom of conscience, no state can be stable and prosperous."