Yevgeny Egorov with his wife on the day of the appeal
A Two-and-a-Half-Year Suspended Sentence—The Outcome of Yevgeniy Yegorov's Long Trial. The Appellate Court in Birobidzhan Upheld the Verdict Against the Believer
Jewish Autonomous AreaOn April 11, 2023, the Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region upheld the guilty verdict and the suspended sentence against Yevgeniy Yegorov for his faith.
Earlier, in February 2023, the Birobidzhan District Court resentenced the believer to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment. At the first trial, which ended in June 2021, the court rendered an identical decision. The appellate court upheld it, but the believer did not agree with the verdict and filed a cassation appeal. The cassation court called the decision of the appellate court "essentially unmotivated" and pointed out a number of procedural violations. As a result, the case was returned to the court of first instance. The criminal prosecution of Yegorov has been going on for almost four years.
Yevgeniy's mother, Larisa Artamonova, also received a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence on similar charges. In total, 23 of Jehovah's Witnesses in the region have been prosecuted for their faith. Four of them were sentenced to actual imprisonment.
The world human rights community and the European Court of Human Rights consider the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses unlawful. However, Russian courts continue to ignore the position of the ECHR, which stated: “It [Article 9 of the European Convention] protects the right of believers to meet peacefully in order to worship in the manner prescribed by their religion.” (§ 267)
