The Primorye Territory Court in Vladivostok Overturned the Harsh Sentence Against Dmitriy Barmakin, Sending the Case Back for Review

On August 8, 2023, the court of appeal overturned the verdict of 8 years imprisonment for 49-year-old Dmitriy Barmakin. The believer was released from the detention center under a recognizance agreement, and his case was sent for a new, already third, trial to the court of first instance.

When Dmitriy was arrested in 2018, he spent more than a year in a detention center, and then another 2 years under a ban on certain actions. As a result of the trial, the Pervorechenskiy District Court of Vladivostok acquitted the believer. Judge Stanislav Salnikov noted: “Rights related to freedom of religion must be ensured regardless of whether a person is a member of any religious organization or not, in connection with which the right to profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses must be ensured even after the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia dated April 20, 2017".

However, the prosecutor appealed this decision, and the court overturned the acquittal, sending the case back for a new trial. In April 2023, the court, comprising new members, sentenced Dmitriy Barmakin to 8 years in a penal colony. He was immediately taken into custody, and he again ended up in a detention center.

Dmitriy's wife, Yelena, is also being prosecuted under Art. 282.2 of the RF Criminal Code for her beliefs. The Pervorechenskiy Court of Vladivostok continues to consider the case against her and 9 other local believers.

In the first acquittal in the Barmakin case, the court noted that the believer “is subject to acquittal due to the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of the defendant” and “realized his right to freedom of religion enshrined in the Russian Constitution.” This decision was in line with the position of the European Court of Human Rights and the human rights community both in Russia and abroad.