A Sakhalin Appeals Court Upheld the Verdict Against Five Believers

The Court of Appeal on Sakhalin upheld the verdict against five believers On May 11, 2022, the Sakhalin Regional Court dismissed the appeal of Yevgeny Yelin, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Aleksandr Kozlitin and Sergey Kulakov and his wife Tatyana. The verdict has entered into force.

The court of first instance found five believers guilty of extremism. Sergey Kulakov and Yevgeny Yelin, who were accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization, were sentenced to 6.5 years of suspended imprisonment. The court sentenced Tatyana Kulakova, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Aleksander Kozlitin to 2 years suspended sentence for participation in the activities of an extremist organization. Believers received such a punishment for reading and discussing the Bible together with fellow believers.

For all the defendants, this criminal prosecution was a test of strength. Sergey Kulakov, 60, and his wife have physical limitations — Tatyana, 48, is visually impaired, and Sergey cannot walk without a cane. The head of the family was included in the Rosfinmonitoring list. Bank accounts were also blocked at 51-year-old Vyacheslav Ivanov and 46-year-old Aleksandr Kozlitin.

The verdict has entered into force. Believers still insist on their innocence. They have the right to appeal the verdict in cassation.

The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia continues despite the clarification of the Plenum of the Russian Supreme Court that liturgical meetings and conversations about the Bible cannot in themselves be considered extremism. Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev additionally emphacized on February 9, 2022: “Actions that do not contain signs of extremism and consist solely in exercising the right to freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, including through the performance of religious rites and ceremonies, do not constitute a crime.”