Vladivostok Appeal Court Upholds the Guilty Verdict Against 77-Year-Old Jehovah’s Witness Vladimir Filippov

On May 14, 2021, the Primorye Territory Court in Vladivostok upheld the sentence to Vladimir Filippov for his faith. The court considered the peaceful confession of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses to be the activity of a banned legal entity. However, the court overturned the order to destroy material evidence.

The verdict was handed down by a panel of judges composed of Tatiana Medvedeva, Svetlana Nikolina and Tatiana Shcherbak, and came into force. The believer still insists on his innocence. He has the right to appeal against the verdict in cassation, as well as in international instances.

On March 15, 2021, the judge of the Nadezhdinsky District Court of the Primorye Territory, Diana Merzlyakova, sentenced the 77-year-old former military man to 6 years of suspended sentence with a probation period of 4 years and restriction of liberty for 1 year. Prosecutor Mariya Koval requested for Filippov 6.5 years in a general regime colony and 2 years of additional restrictions, despite the absence of any real damage in the case of the victims.

Vladimir Filippov was born during the World War II in 1943. His father died before he was born. After graduating from the Tomsk Artillery School, he served in the army for 27 years. In 1995 he became a Jehovah's Witness, for which he was discriminated against on the basis of religion in modern Russia. For more than a year he has been under recognizance agreement.

In his last plea at the court of appeal, Vladimir Filippov said: “Have you noticed that the Bible teaches us to do only good? That is why there is neither a victim nor a victim in my case ... I have never participated in extremist affairs, have not shown and do not show hatred towards people of other nationalities and religions. Extremism is incompatible with my religious beliefs as a Jehovah's Witness ... Accusing me of involvement in extremist activities is a gross error of the investigation, deliberate distortion of facts in order to defame the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. We are known for striving to be honest, peaceful and follow the Bible's counsel as closely as possible in all areas of our lives.”

For 2 years and 9 months, the investigation conducted operational measures in relation to the believer. In particular, they received an audio recording of a conversation about the Bible with a certain B.N. Ulyankin, depicting a spiritual interest. A psychological, linguistic and religious examination was carried out on the case, which was prepared by Nadezhda Oleshkevich, associate professor of the Department of Philosophy and Legal Psychology, Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service. She found an article on the Internet with biased information about Jehovah's Witnesses and, on this basis, built a conclusion about the "hostility" of the believer's religion towards the state. At the same time, the expert did not provide evidence of any specific hostile actions or crimes.

From 2018 to 2020, 3 searches were carried out in Vladimir Filippov’s home. On July 19, 2018, during the assault, one of the law enforcement officers punched him in the face. After about a year, he was searched again. Then his wife Lyubov, due to stress, suffered a hypertensive crisis and needed urgent medical attention. About six months later, the court sanctioned the third search in the Filippovs' home, after which Vladimir was charged under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The defendant noted in court: “The investigation has not provided any evidence that I have committed at least one of the actions that are listed as extremist in paragraph 1 of Art. 1 of the Federal Law ‘On Counteracting Extremist Activity’. What is extremist activity? This is an exclusively illegal activity. But praying to God is not a violation of the law. Learning Bible teachings is not breaking the law. Talking to other people who are willing to talk about spiritual topics is not a violation of the law.”

Religious scholar Olga Averina presented an expert opinion, including on the topics that were discussed at the liturgical meeting on November 18, 2017 (goodness, honesty and moral purity). She noted the promptings of believers to be diligent in studying the Bible and serving God.

In total, 20 criminal cases have already been initiated in the Primorye Territory against 36 Jehovah's Witnesses, including 20 women. The oldest of them, Yelena Zaishchuk, is 87 years old. Some of them have been under recognizance agreement for the fourth year already.

On July 23, 2020, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated with alarm: "We have heard more than once from the Russian delegation at the Permanent Council that Jehovah's Witnesses profess and can continue to practice their faith freely. However, we see numerous reports of searches, detentions, and criminal investigations against Jehovah's Witnesses. This is in strong contrast with the statements made by the Russian delegation. [...] All people, including Jehovah's Witnesses, must be able to peacefully exercise their rights, including the right to freedom of religion, peaceful assembly, and expression without discrimination, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Russia's OSCE commitments and international law."