Andrey Sazonov after the verdict was read out outside the courthouse, December 2021
The Second Appeal Overturned the Sentence of Andrey Sazonov, One of Jehovah's Witnesses From Uray. The Case Is Sent Back for the Third Retrial
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous AreaOn January 11, 2024, the Judicial Collegium of the Court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area -- Yugra, chaired by Judge Lyudmila Blashkova, overturned the verdict against Andrey Sazonov and sent the case for a new trial to the Uray City Court with a new panel of judges.
In the winter of 2021, the Uray City Court found Andrey Sazonov guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization and its financing and sentenced him to a fine of 450,000 rubles. The court considered Sazonov's peaceful religious activities, as well as participation in fundraising to help his fellow believers, to be a crime. The verdict was appealed. The appellate instance overturned the verdict, sending the case for a new trial.
In a new appeal, the believer noted: "A religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses is the name of a religious denomination of an international character, which the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not ban."
He added that there was no corpus delicti in his actions of a religious nature: "All witnesses unanimously testified [in court] that they had never heard from me statements inciting religious hatred or enmity, and did not see any other signs of extremism. The forensic examinations conducted in the case did not establish the presence of signs of extremism in worship services either."
Apart from preliminary hearings and court hearings concerning his restraint measures, Andrey Sazonov has had to go to courts for more than 3.5 years. In the Uray City Court, his case has already been heard by two of all three judges working there with criminal cases. When announcing the appeal decision, the court did not explain why the believer's case was again sent for retrial.