From left to right: Aleksandr Rakovskiy, Aleksandr Vavilov, Aleksey Oreshkov. November 2021

From left to right: Aleksandr Rakovskiy, Aleksandr Vavilov, Aleksey Oreshkov. November 2021

From left to right: Aleksandr Rakovskiy, Aleksandr Vavilov, Aleksey Oreshkov. November 2021

Unjust Verdicts

The Court of Cassation in Saratov Did Not Change the Sentence of Three Jehovah's Witnesses From Pavlovo. They continue to serve suspended sentences for practicing their religion

Nizhegorod Region

On December 22, 2022, the First Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Saratov considered the appeals of Aleksandr Vavilov, Aleksey Oreshkov and Aleksandr Rakovskiy, but did not change the verdict—3-year suspended sentence each.

All three disagree with the court decision court and consider themselves not guilty. In their appeals, they stated: "We were convicted not of a crime, but for expressing our faith in ways typical of Christianity and permitted by law." The believers noted that, it became clear from the hearings in the court of first instance, that "in order to pass a guilty verdict, the court did not need any facts or evidence" of guilt .

The verdict in the case of Vavilov, Oreshkov and Rakovskiy was handed down in October 2021 and entered into force after an appeal in January 2022. The courts of all three instances considered that conducting religious meetings and services by Jehovah's Witnesses could be equated with extremism, without specific facts of illegal activity.

Such a position of the courts contradicts both the decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the recent ruling of the ECHR regarding Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. In particular, the European Court emphasized that “only religious expressions and actions containing violence, manifestations of hatred or discrimination, or calling for them, can serve as a basis for suppressing them as 'extremist' . . . The courts did not identify a single word, deed or action of the applicants, which would be motivated by violence, hatred or discrimination against others, or which would be tainted by violence, hatred or discrimination” (§271).

At the moment, in the Nizhny Novgorod Region two more similar criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses are being considered in courts.

Case of Vavilov and Oreshkov in Pavlovo

Case History
In July 2019, mass searches and detentions of Jehovah’s Witnesses took place in Nizhny Novgorod and the city of Pavlovo. The Federal Security Service of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region initiated a criminal case on the suspicion that unidentified persons were participating in extremist activity — this is how the investigation classified the worship of believers. The security forces detained Aleksey Oreshkov and Aleksandr Vavilov and placed them in pretrial detention for 211 and 241 days, respectively. Later, the FSB added Aleksandr Rakovskiy to the same case as a defendant. In January 2021, the case went to court. Despite fabricated testimonies in the case and the fact that there were no victims, in October 2021 the court imposed a 3-year suspended sentence on the peaceful believers. In January 2022, the regional court, and in December the cassation court, left this sentence unchanged.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Nizhegorod Region
Locality:
Pavlovo
Suspected of:
"Realizing a joint criminal intent, acting intentionally, by a group of persons by prior conspiracy . . . took active steps aimed at . . . conducting religious speeches and services”
Court case number:
11907220001000025
Initiated:
July 16, 2019
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Investigative Department of the Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Nizhniy Novgorod Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (2)
Court case number:
1-49/2021
Court of First Instance:
Павловский районный суд Нижегородской области
Judge of the Court of First Instance:
Дмитрий Пестов
Case History