Yevgeny Egorov with his wife on the day of sentencing. Birobidzhan. June 21, 2021

Yevgeny Egorov with his wife on the day of sentencing. Birobidzhan. June 21, 2021

Yevgeny Egorov with his wife on the day of sentencing. Birobidzhan. June 21, 2021

Unjust Verdicts

The Court in Birobidzhan Sentenced Yevgeny Yegorov to 2.5 Years Suspended for Discussing the Bible

Jewish Autonomous Area

On June 21, 2021, the judge of the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Aleksey Ivashchenko, sentenced 30-year-old Jehovah's Witness Yevgeniy Yegorov to 2.5 years of probation and 1 year of restriction of freedom for meeting with fellow believers, considering it "participation in the activities of a banned organization."

The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed. The believer insists on his complete innocence. “In this trial, I have heard more than once that I am being tried for extremism, I am not being tried for my religious beliefs,” Yevgeny said in his last word. “But there is no evidence of my «extremism». I’m under the trial for participation [in an extremist organization], but participation was expressed in Bible study, which is part of my faith. But in the same time I’m under the trial not for my faith. So who will explain to me, a legally uneducated person, what is my crime? "

Yevgeniy Yegorov is an aspiring writer. In May 2018, his apartment was searched and he lost his manuscripts. The persecution for the faith deprived a young family man of the opportunity to take proper care of a young child.

The persecution of Yevgeniy Yegorov and other peaceful believers in Birobidzhan began in May 2018 after a large-scale operation codenamed “Doomsday”. A criminal case against Yegorov was initiated on July 29, 2019. It was investigated by the Investigative Department of the Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region. On December 23, 2019, the case file went to court. The prosecutor asked to impose a punishment on the believer in the form of 4 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony plus 1 year of restraint of freedom.

Yevgeniy's mother, Larisa Artamonova, was convicted under the same criminal article. In April 2021, the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region toughened the decision of the lower court and replaced her with a fine of 10,000 rubles for 2.5 years of probation and 1 year of restraint of liberty. In total, 10 Jehovah's Witnesses have already been convicted for their faith with varying degrees of punishment in the Jewish Autonomous Region. For another 4 believers, the trials are nearing completion.

All cases were initiated only because the believers peacefully confessed their religious beliefs and gathered for services. The world community unequivocally classifies this as a violation of fundamental human rights.

Case of Yegorov in Birobidzhan

Case History
Yevgeniy Yegorov is an aspiring writer from Birobidzhan who, because of being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, was accused by the FSB of participating in extremist activities. In May 2018, security forces raided the home where he and his mother lived, and a year later, they initiated a criminal case against him. While under investigation, Yevgeniy got married, but due to a recognizance agreement, he was forced to cancel the honeymoon trip. Also, the young man was included on the Rosfinmonitoring list of terrorists and extremists. The court considered his case for a year and a half and finally gave him a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence in June 2021. This decision was upheld by the appellate court, but the cassation court returned the case to the regional court, which, in turn, sent the case back to the first instance court. Upon reconsideration, the position of the courts did not change—the suspended sentence of two and a half years entered into force in April 2023 after a second appeal.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Jewish Autonomous Area
Locality:
Birobidzhan
Suspected of:
According to the investigation, “in order to extend the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses by improving the skills of preaching and other religious activities, they studied ... the publication of Jehovah's Witnesses ‘The Holy Scriptures / New World Translation’, recognized as extremist”
Court case number:
11907990001000007
Initiated:
July 29, 2019
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Russian Federal Security Office for Jewish Autonomous Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (2)
Court case number:
1-38/2023 (1-717/2022; 1-11/2021; 1-48/2020; 1-624/2019)
Court of First Instance:
Биробиджанский районный суд Еврейской автономной области
[i18n] Судья первой инстанции:
Станислав Ушаков (судья первой инстанции на повторном рассмотрении)
Case History
Back to top