Cassation Court in Kemerovo Upheld Sergey Ananin's 6-Year Prison Term

Sergey Ananin from the Kemerovo region is preparing to serve a 6-year sentence for his faith. On January 30, 2024, the cassation panel of the Eighth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Kemerovo dismissed his cassation appeal against the verdict.

Sergey Ananin was taken into custody on March 31, 2023, immediately after the Belovo City Court handed down a harsh sentence. Judge Galina Proshchenko then sent the believer to a penal colony for 6 years. An appeal in June of the same year upheld the decision of the court of first instance.

In fact, the believer was found guilty of extremism only for communicating with fellow believers via video conferencing. In the cassation appeal, the lawyer noted: "In the course of the trial, it was reliably established that the actions of the convicted S.V. Ananin were in fact nothing more than an external manifestation of his attitude to religion, criminal liability for which, as the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation emphasized, is excluded." Sergey Ananin emphasized: "In fact, the courts simply refused to apply the direct and immediate norm of Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which guarantees everyone freedom of conscience and freedom of religion."

The lawyer also called the verdict unfair, since the courts did not take into account the state of health of the defendant, who suffered a heart attack on the eve of the searches. He said that under the conditions of imprisonment, Ananin's health could be irreparably harmed.

Contrary to the decision of the ECHR and the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, judges continue to pass convictions on Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the country. In the Kemerovo region, 15 believers have already been sentenced to various punishments for their faith.