Court in Samara Sent Four Jehovah's Witnesses to Prison for 7 Years

Aram Danielyan, Denis Kuzyanin, Sergey Polosenko and Nikolay Vasiliyev were sentenced to 7 years in prison for practicing their faith. This decision was made by Dmitriy Derunov, judge of the Samara District Court, on Thursday, January 25. The believers were taken into custody. Their friends and relatives accompanied the police van with applause and shouted "We love you!"

The six-month trial against the Samara residents came to an abrupt conclusion: the last hearing including breaks lasted more than 10 hours. Within this time, the closing arguments, the final statements and the verdict were presented.

The charges of organizing extremist activity are based on hidden recordings of meetings for worship and personal conversations about the Bible, as well as some documents from the computer of one of the defendants, which, as it turned out in court, were uploaded there by an FSB technical specialist during the search. It was not indicated in the case materials exactly which extremist actions or statements were made by the believers.

Defendants in the courtroom during a break

The prosecutor requested 9 years imprisonment for all defendants. The defense requested an adjournment of the closing arguments so that everyone would have the opportunity to prepare, but the judge refused and granted only a 10-minute break. "I ask you to pass an acquittal on the results of this unprecedented case," said one of the lawyers in the ensuing speech, "and I ask [to pass] a private ruling on the violation of the current legislation not only for the sake of Danielyan and other defendants, who have already received their share of unjustified prosecution in full, but also for the sake of other citizens who may face attacks from the investigator and the prosecutor's office."

The defendants prepared their final statements during a break announced after the closing arguments. At this point, their wives and other relatives, realizing that the case was moving towards imprisonment, brought things, and relatives and friends continued gathering near the courthouse in the cold. The hearing was also attended, obviously to exert pressure on the court, by three FSB officers, including Nikolay Kulik, known to local believers for his negative attitude towards Jehovah's Witnesses. One of those who came, as previously stated by the believers, was present when one of the brothers was beaten when detained.

Aram, Nikolay, Denis and Sergey previously expressed deep gratitude to family and friends for their support. "I can confidently say that if it were not for the help of my brothers and sisters, I would not have endured this ordeal with dignity," Aram said. Denis related: "One of the most memorable events was the first batch of letters I received about a month after I ended up in the pretrial detention center. They brought about 80 letters, and a few days later the same amount.

The case of the believers developed according to the pattern that had already become the "standard": searches were carried out in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Samara in December 2021, followed by interrogations. All four defendants in the case spent a year behind bars even during the investigation. The believers consider the verdict unfair and intend to appeal it.

In the Samara Region, this is already the second conviction for peacefully practicing their religion.