The Court of Appeal in Kemerovo Did Not Change the Term of Punishment Imposed on Sergey Ananin. The Believer, Who Suffered a Heart Attack, Will Go to a Penal Colony for Six Year

On June 14, 2023, the judicial panel of the Kemerovo Regional Court upheld the sentence imposed on Sergey Ananin—six years in a penal colony. The court determined to count as time served the two days that the believer spent in the temporary detention facility after his arrest.

On March 31, 2023, the Belovskiy City Court of the Kemerovo Region found Sergey Ananin guilty of “organizing the activity of an extremist organization” for praying, singing songs, and discussing the Bible over the Internet.

The believer has appealed the verdict. “Expressing hatred, enmity and violence is incompatible with my views. I treat people of other religions and nationalities with respect. I was convicted only for my faith in God. [...] The state authorities, by their actions, present me and my fellow believers in a bad light before society and contribute to the spread of prejudice against... Jehovah's Witnesses,” the believer says in his appeal.

The courts did not take into account the fact that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not ban the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses and did not assess the legitimacy of the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses and the way they express them. Both courts also did not take into account the defendant's health and his need for rehabilitation after his heart surgery (at the end of 2020 he suffered a massive heart attack). The believer can appeal the verdict and the appellate ruling to the court of cassation.

Currently, Sergey Ananin is being held in Detention Center No. 4 in the Kemerovo Region. He was placed there after the verdict was announced and will soon be transferred to a penal colony.

Since 2017 Russian law enforcement officers have already conducted more than 2,000 searches at the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses, and criminal cases have been initiated against more than 730 people. Almost 400 believers spent time in temporary detention centers, pre-trial detention centers, and penal colonies, and another 124 people are still behind bars.