Left to right: Alam Aliyev, Valeriy Kriger, Dmitriy Zagulin and Sergey Shulyarenko attend the hearing via video link on March 27, 2024

Left to right: Alam Aliyev, Valeriy Kriger, Dmitriy Zagulin and Sergey Shulyarenko attend the hearing via video link on March 27, 2024

Left to right: Alam Aliyev, Valeriy Kriger, Dmitriy Zagulin and Sergey Shulyarenko attend the hearing via video link on March 27, 2024

Unjust Verdicts

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

Jewish Autonomous Area

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.

The Case of Aliyev and Others in Birobidzhan

Case History
In May 2018, a special FSB operation involving 150 officers took place in Birobidzhan under the code name "Judgment Day," marking the beginning of the persecution of more than 20 families of Jehovah's Witnesses. Alam Aliyev, Valeriy Kriger, Sergey Shulyarenko, and Dmitriy Zagulin were among those accused of extremism for holding religious services. They spent more than five months in pretrial detention. In December 2022, after more than two years of hearings, the court sentenced them to between 3.5 and 7 years in a penal colony. On appeal, the harshest of these sentences (given to Krieger) was reduced by three months. In September 2023, Sergey Shulyarenko was married while in the colony. Zagulin completed his sentence in the spring of 2026. The wives of three of the convicted men—Svetlana Monis, Tatyana Zagulina, and Natalya Kriger—were also subjected to criminal prosecution.
Timeline

Persons in case

Aliyev
Alam
Kriger
Valeriy
Shulyarenko
Sergey
Zagulin
Dmitriy

Criminal case

Region:
Jewish Autonomous Area
Locality:
Birobidzhan
Suspected of:
according to the investigation, he together with others conducted meetings for worship, which is interpreted as “organising the activity of an extremist organisation” (with reference to the decision of the RF Supreme Court on the liquidation of all 396 registered organisations of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Court case number:
11807990001000008
Initiated:
May 14, 2018
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Investigative Department of the FSB Directorate of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1), 282.3 (1)
Court case number:
1-8/2022 (1-65/2021; 1-609/2020)
Court:
Birobidzhanskiy District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region
Judge:
Yana Vladimirova
Case History
Back to top