A Novosibirsk court sentenced 66-year-old Yuriy Savelyev, one of Jehovah's Witnesses, to six years in prison. He has already spent half of this term in pre-trial detention

Leninsky District Court of Novosibirsk judge Yekaterina Kashina sentenced Yuriy Savelyev to six years in a general regime colony for believing in Jehovah God on December 16, 2020. The believer will appeal the verdict and will remain in pre-trial detention center until the appeal hearing, where he has been held for 769 days, despite his deteriorating health.

“Yuriy Savelyev was taken to the announcement of the verdict with a high fever, in a weakened state, but in a good mood, despite the fact that at the previous session the assistant prosecutor V. Petrov requested 8 years in prison for him. The believer intends to appeal the verdict in the near future,” Saveliev's lawyer said after the court session.

“I do not hold any grudge or resentment against those because of whom I am in prison,” said Yuriy Savelyev, speaking in court on December 9 with his last word.

After the liquidation of legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in 2017, Yuriy Savelyev did not stop adhering to the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, reading the Bible and discussing religious topics with fellow believers and other people. The investigation considered this to be extremism, organization of the activities of a banned organization (part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Yuriy Savelyev considers these accusations absurd: “I have no enemies, and for my almost 67 years I have never been brought to administrative or criminal responsibility. I am against any form of violence, be it verbal, psychological or physical. "

During the trial, not a single evidence was presented that the believer had committed any real crime and pose a threat to society or the state. Nevertheless, Judge Yekaterina Kashina repeatedly extended the detention of a believer despite the pandemic. As a result, in prison, Yuriy Savelyev fell ill, besides, the elderly man had aggravated diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Based on the rules for recording the time of detention, Yuriy Savelyev has already served almost half of the term in the pre-trial detention center. He should be released in September 2023.

“Such a severe sentence for an absolutely innocent elderly and not very healthy person violates the norms of humanism and undermines faith in justice. During the time of the religious persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in contemporary Russia, Yuriy Savelyev became the fifth prisoner of conscience to be sentenced to 6 years in prison just for participating in peaceful religious meetings. The Russian state indicated that this confession is not prohibited, only legal entities have been liquidated. But the courts continue to send ordinary people to jail, essentially saying that Jehovah's Witnesses have no right to freedom of religion,” said Yaroslav Sivulsky, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The international community strongly condemns the criminal prosecution of believers.