Court in Adygea Convicted Two Jehovah's Witnesses Aleksey Dmitriyev Sent to Penal Colony and Yuriy Sergeechev, 74, Given Suspended Sentence

On December 22, 2025, Aslanbech Trakhov, chairman of the Teuchezhskiy District Court, announced the verdict in a case against two peaceful believers charged with participating in the activity of an extremist organization — Aleksey Dmitriyev 4 years in a penal colony, and elderly Yuriy Sergeechev, who has a disability, a 4-year suspended sentence.

The case against Sergeechev and Dmitriyev was initiated at the end of April 2025. The men were immediately arrested and spent about 8 months in pretrial detention. Yuriy Sergeechev, 74, has a disability, has diabetes mellitus, has had two heart attacks and has frequent severe hypertensive crises. He walks with a cane. On the eve of one of the court hearings, Yuriy had another hypertensive crisis, and yet he was taken to court. A week later, the same thing happened. His lawyer said: "We informed the court that the defendant had high blood pressure at night — more than 200/115 — but the court did not care."

Despite his serious condition and advanced age, during the hearings Sergeechev was kept in a cage. Human rights activists consider this treatment as degrading and highlight, that he could have been under a more lenient preventive measure. Only the day before the verdict, Yuriy was released from the detention center under a recognizance agreement.

Shortly before the announcement of the verdict, Yuriy was released under a recognizance agreement. With his wife Antonina, they were photographed outside the courthouse. December 2025

The charge was based on audio recordings of conversations made by a man who feigned an interest in the Bible. According to the believers, he himself asked for advice on how to help his relatives and repeatedly asked them to discuss the Holy Scriptures with him. The defense noted that the case materials did not contain calls for violence or hostility, nevertheless the prosecutor requested 5 years in a penal colony for Yuriy Sergeechev, and 6 years for Aleksey Dmitriyev.

In his statement, Yuriy Sergeechev said, that the prosecution did not provide any real evidence of the crime and that none of the witnesses said anything negative about him. He asked the court: what exactly does the state consider illegal — prayer, discussion of the Scriptures or peaceful conversation?

In his final statement, Aleksey Dmitriyev asked the court to take into account that his 90-year-old mother needs care. He stressed that extremism is incompatible with his beliefs, since Jehovah's Witnesses do not participate in political struggle, do not take up arms and maintain peace.

In its decision of October 16, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights states that court decisions against Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, including the elderly, lack due humanity and are illegal. "Since the authorities failed to demonstrate that the applicants were involved in any socially dangerous activities of an extremist nature, their prosecution and conviction for peacefully practicing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in community with others... did not pursue any legitimate aim or 'pressing social need'," the judgment reads (paragraph 11). Already 89 men and women over the age of 70 are being prosecuted for their faith in Jehovah God; 6 of them are behind bars.