Ivanovo region-based believer Yevgeniy Spirin's sentence is now in force. The sentence, in the form of a large fine, has not changed

On October 14, 2020, Ivanovo regional court upheld the sentence of Evgeniy Spirin, a 34-year-old believer from the town of Furmanov, who was fined 700 000 rubles for "extremism" by Furmanov town court in July. Given the time spent in detention, the amount payable is 500,000 rubles.

The prosecutor initially demanded that the believer be sentenced to 7 years in prison. In its appeal, the prosecution requested that the case be returned to a new trial, and the defense asked for a full acquittal.

"Extremism" was considered by the courts to be conversations with believers about God. "If Jehovah's Witnesses stop gathering together, how can they exercise the right under the Constitution of our country that they "have the right to confess their beliefs one or with others"? — said Yevgeniy Spirin in his last word. He also stressed that his faith does not threaten the state and society, because "the Bible teaches us to do good deeds and never resort to violence." According to Yevgeniy, the peaceful civic position is proved by the fact that he refused to take up arms and completed a longer-term alternative non-military service.

Yevgeniy Spirin was detained on January 27, 2019, when about 10 security officers in civilian clothes broke down the door in the apartment where he lives with his wife, Natalia. At that moment the believers had friends, including an 11-year-old child, an 82-year-old pensioner, and a 70-year-old woman with a disability. Several law enforcement officers pushed Yevgeniy into the kitchen and handcuffed him. Electronic devices, literature, and postcards were seized from those present. Law enforcers behaved rudely, called the crowd a "sect" and threatened to undergo a humiliating inspection.

The next day the court sent Yevgeniy to the pre-trial detention center, where he remained for almost six months. He remained under house arrest for another six months and was released in December 2019 without further restrictive measures.

The criminal case against Yevgeniy Spirin was investigated by the Ivanovo region FSB. Special services monitored the believers with the help of an embedded agent, a former police officer who depicted interest in the Bible. Yevgeny was replaced with the reopening of the banned Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization because he did not stop participating in religious meetings of believers.

According to a decision of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, attached to Yevgeny Spirin's case, the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses have nothing to do with extremism.