First Sentence for Faith in Tatarstan: Court Gave From 2.5 to 3 Years of Suspended Sentence to Four Jehovah's Witnesses

On December 16, 2021, the judge of the Naberezhnye Chelny City Court of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Khakimov found Ilham Karimov, Aydar Yulmetyev, Konstantin Matrashov and Vladimir Myakushin guilty of extremism only because of their faith in Jehovah God and gave them suspended sentence.

The court sentenced 34-year-old Myakushin to 3 years and 1 month of suspended sentence, 33-year-old Matrashov and 40-year-old Karimov — to 2.5 years of suspended sentence, and 28-year-old Yulmetyev — to 2 years and 9 months of suspended sentence. All believers are also assigned a probationary period of 2 years. The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed. All four of them insist on their complete innocence.

Addressing the court with the last word, Ilham Karimov said: “The accusations against me of extremist motives are not only unfounded, invented, not based on facts, but also blasphemous, offending my religious feelings, as well as contrary to common sense and violating my right to honest name". Konstantin Matrashov noted: "I have no shame because I didn’t do something bad." Aydar Yulmetyev emphasized: "I am not guilty of what I am accused of, in these terrible crimes." Vladimir Myakushin explained to the court: "Jehovah's Witnesses are absolutely peaceful people, and I try to do the same."

There is not a single victim in the case. However, the prosecutor requested 7 to 8 years in prison for them.

All four are law-abiding, peaceful citizens. Matrashov graduated from the University of Management and worked as a mechanic at a factory, financially supporting his mother. Karimov at various times worked as a glassblower, carpenter, assembler, electrician. Myakushin is a leading engineer at a plant for the production of electrical equipment for cars. Yulmetyev grew up in a family of builders and took over professional skills from them, he also studied as an auto mechanic and worked in both specialties.

On the evening of May 27, 2018, officers of the Investigative Committee and the FSB came to the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Naberezhnye Chelny and conducted searches until late at night. The security forces seized electronic devices, mobile phones, and passports from believers, among whom were elderly women and a child. Karimov, Myakushin and Matrashov were arrested. Two days after the raids, Yulmetyev was also detained. Later, they were charged with organizing and financing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 and Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Republic of Tatarstan has been investigating the case for about 2.5 years. In November 2019, hearings were to begin in the Naberezhnye Chelny City Court of the Republic of Tatarstan, but the court returned the case to the prosecutor's office, pointing out significant violations of the law committed at the investigation stage, as well as unfounded accusations by the investigator and the prosecutor. Nevertheless, a year later, the court began to consider the case, which lasted almost a year.

Since the moment of detention, each of those arrested spent six months in a pre-trial detention center, then from 2 to 3 months under house arrest, and since the end of April 2019 they have been under recognizance agreement. Believers were also included in the Federal List of Extremists of Rosfinmonitoring. Because of this, men could neither fully take care of their relatives, nor get a job, or even insure a car.

Believers said that it was especially difficult to endure separation from loved ones. For a long time they were not allowed to meet and talk on the phone. Detention centre officials pressured and warned that if they did not stop sharing their faith with other prisoners, this could further aggravate their situation.

In the Republic of Tatarstan, due to the actions of the authorities, 7 more Jehovah's Witnesses suffered. Konstantin Sannikov has been in custody for about a year and a half, and all this time he has been denied visits with his wife.

On December 8, 2021, member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Andrey Babushkin sent an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with the ongoing persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Noting the importance of the clarifications undertaken on October 28, 2021 by the Plenum of the Supreme Court on the constitutional right of believers to continue to practice their religion, the human rights activist expressed regret over the actions of the judicial system. Babushkin writes: "By inertia, the investigating authorities and courts continue to authorize searches, arrest believers and pass convictions on them . . . At the same time, people are being tried for what, according to the position of the RF Supreme Court, is not a crime."

On behalf of the members of the Council under the President of Russia for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, the human rights activist asks Vladimir Putin “to draw the attention of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Director of the Federal Security Service, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation to an explanation of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on this issue and give them an order urgently and carefully check the expediency of keeping dozens of arrested Jehovah's Witnesses in custody awaiting trial, as well as “examining previously passed sentences with a view to overturning them.”