Investigator Viktor Petrov initiates a criminal case under an extremist article against Alexei Timofeev.
After the search, the security forces detained and interrogated Alexei Timofeev. On the same day, a decision is made to bring the believer as an accused under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Investigator Petrov asks the Petrozavodsk City Court to choose a measure of restraint for Alexei Timofeev in the form of detention. Judge Ekaterina Kanaeva sends the believer to the pre-trial detention center until May 25, 2024.
Aleksey Timofeev is being held in the PFRSI (pre-trial detention facility) at correctional colony No. 9 in Petrozavodsk. The believer is in a good mood. He is supported by letters from family and friends. He also has the opportunity to read the Bible. Alexei's relations with his cellmates and administration are conflict-free.
Judge of the Petrozavodsk City Court of the Republic of Karelia Tatyana Petina changes the measure of restraint for Alexei Timofeev. He was released from the pre-trial detention center under house arrest until June 25, 2024.
The court changes the restriction measure to a ban on certain actions.
Investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Karelia Viktor Petrov is conducting a search of a woman who is a witness in the Timofeev case. After the search, the woman is interrogated.
The case goes to the Petrozavodsk City Court.
During the study of the written materials of the case, Aleksey Timofeev points out that the information about the operational-search measures relates to other persons and to a different period. He notes that his statements do not appear in the transcripts, which can be seen from the designations of the names.
The defender draws attention to the need to distinguish between the religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses, which are not prohibited, and the activities of a legal entity recognized as extremist. According to him, these concepts are combined in the case materials, which makes it difficult to objectively assess the actions of the defendant. The lawyer also notes that some of the experts' conclusions are based on unverified information.
Interrogation of two prosecution witnesses.
One of them tells the court that at the request of the FSB, he participated in operational-search activities, recorded conversations with Timofeev and another believer. He notes that he did not feel pressure and could have stopped communicating at any time, but continued it on the instructions of the FSB.
Witnesses for the prosecution are being interrogated. An officer of the Ministry of Justice for Karelia reports that in 2017, three legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses were liquidated in the region, including the one in Petrozavodsk, but the religion itself is not prohibited.
One woman, who employed Aleksey to work on her land, says: "He is missed. I have hired a variety of people, but often they were drunkards and let me down; however, when I worked with the defendant, that didn't happen."
The court is interrogating two prosecution witnesses. One of them, a police officer in reserve, says that she does not know Aleksey Timofeev and has never attended a meeting for worship of Jehovah's Witnesses. She does not understand why she was searched and invited to court: "I would like to know myself why I am involved in this case at all."
The second woman enjoys the right not to testify against herself and her relatives.
The court is reviewing audio and video recordings from the case files. In one of them, a man asks Timofeev for Bible-based advice about family life. The believer draws the court's attention to the prosecution's claim that Jehovah's Witnesses destroy families, yet this recording specifically expresses the thought that marriage is sacred from God's viewpoint and must be preserved. "The court can determine whether this thought confirms or disproves the accusation," the defendant says.
The prosecutor concludes the presentation of evidence. At his motion, Investigator Viktor Petrov, deputy head of the Investigative Department for Petrozavodsk of the RF Investigative Committee Directorate for the Republic of Karelia, who handled the criminal case against Timofeyev, is interrogated. The defense draws the court’s attention to the fact that the remarks Investigator Petrov attributed to Aleksey do not sound like his voice. "I can assume that I could have made such a mistake out of inattention," Petrov comments.
The believer requests that the court attach documents disproving the charge that Jehovah's Witnesses evade their civil obligations (certificates of tax payment, employment record book, military ID, and others). The court grants Aleksey’s motion.
Aleksey Timofeyev delivers his final statement at the Petrozavodsk City Court.
The prosecutor is requesting a sentence of 7 years’ imprisonment for Aleksey Timofeyev.
Timofeyev begins his closing arguments with a mathematical expression in which many variables are multiplied by zero, causing the final value to be zero. He explains: “All these charges come down to a single falsehood, that very zero which renders the entire accusation worthless.” Timofeyev notes that there is not a single statement in the case materials that the prosecution has classified as extremist. Reading the Bible, praying, and meetings for worship are presented in the case as evidence of “organizing and continuing the activity.” “By law, all religions are equal,” he says, referring to Article 19 of the RF Constitution. “But is not the prosecution’s side implying by this that some religions are ‘more equal’ than others?”
The believer asks that the key evidence for the prosecution be declared inadmissible. In particular, the expert study by L. V. Zyabkin is based on works written ‘to assist the Orthodox missionary’ in polemics with religious minorities. In addition, Zyabkin’s study object was transcripts based on a compact disc that was later destroyed, so there was no possibility to verify their correspondence to the original.
