Lipetsk Court Imposes Large Fines on Three Believers for Bible Reading

On November 24, 2021, Judge Aleksandr Ustinov found Viktor Bachurin, Aleksandr Kostrov and Artur Netreba guilty of participating in the activities of an extremist organization and imposed a fine of 500,000 rubles on each of them. The fine was reduced to 300,000 rubles, since the believers spent almost a year in a pre-trial detention center.

Although there is not a single victim in the case, the prosecutor asked the Sovetskiy District Court of Lipetsk to appoint each of them 4 years in prison and 8 months of restriction of liberty.

60-year-old Aleksandr Kostrov has already retired. Another convict, Viktor Bachurin, is 59 years old. 43-year-old Artur Netreba lost his job in connection with the criminal prosecution, and his wife Svetlana cannot work for health reasons.

Aleksandr Kostrov in his last word emphasized:: “I am proud that I one of Jehovah's Witnesses and I try to sanctify the name of God with my righteous deeds. Becoming a Jehovah's Witness is not easy: for this you need to get rid of all bad habits, observe not only God's laws, but also the laws of the country in which you live. Therefore, the accusations against me and my friends are absurd. "

Viktor Bachurin, in his address to the court, said: "As a deeply religious person, it is difficult for me to imagine that for the good that we bring to people, we can, figuratively speaking, be executed."

Arthur Netreba, speaking with the last word, noted: "I am credited with something that, as a Christian, is disgusting and alien. I was not convicted of anything reprehensible. Yes, I am a happy person, and I have nothing to blush for.

On December 2, 2019, the investigator of the FSB Directorate for the Lipetsk Region, Yaroslav Yakushev, opened a criminal case against Kostrov, Bachurin and Netreba under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Within an hour and a half after that, searches were carried out in 7 houses of residents of Lipetsk. Three believers were visiting their friend when a group of FSB officers burst into the apartment. After interrogation, Kostrov, Bachurin and Netreba were detained and placed in a pre-trial detention center. They all spent 333 days behind bars.

The investigation lasted over 12 months. On December 7, 2020, the case was filed with the Sovetskiy District Court of Lipetsk. Judge Yekaterina Ferapontova issued an order to arrest Alexandr Kostrov's property in the amount of more than 760,000 rubles. The decision was taken in the absence of the accused, who was not even informed about the trial.

During the court hearings, which lasted about a year, the oral testimonies of some witnesses differed from their written statements. The secret witness "Ivanov" was also confused in his testimony. The prosecutor considered the oral answers to be untrue and requested that the written statements of witnesses be read out instead.

The defendants drew the court's attention to the fact that the evidence presented by the investigation did not correspond to the charges against them. Nevertheless, the investigation considered the holding of "religious meetings" to be manifestations of extremism.

The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed. The believers insist on their complete innocence.

The Russian government has repeatedly stated that the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia is not prohibited. In addition, Russian and foreign human rights activists unanimously condemn the actions of the authorities in relation to Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation. On October 28 of this year, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that the very fact of collective religious services of Jehovah's Witnesses do not constitute a crime under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which is applied to believers.