A Court of Appeal in Moscow Upheld the Verdict of Five Jehovah's Witnesses. Believers Were Sent to a Penal Colony for Terms of Four to Six Years

On April 10, 2024, the sentence entered into force for Ivan Chaikovskiy, Yuriy Chernyshev, Vitaliy Komarov, Sergey Shatalov and Vardan Zakaryan with minor changes made by the Moscow City Court. More than 150 people came to support the believers at the courthouse, but only about 20 were allowed into the courtroom.

The criminal prosecution has been going on for about three and a half years. In November 2020, law enforcement officers staged a high-profile mass raid on the believers living in Moscow. One of them, Vardan Zakaryan, was beaten during the raid and ended up in hospital. The men were accused of organizing the activity of an extremist organization and involving others in it because of conversations about the Bible with an undercover agent who feigned interest in this book.

All five have been in custody since the announcement of the verdict on March 31, 2023. Chaikovskiy, Chernyshev, Komarov and Shatalov received six years and three months, and Zakaryan — four years and three months in a penal colony with deprivation of the right to lead or participate in the work of public organizations for three years, prohibited from participating in mass events; to report to the state agency supervising the serving a sentence twice a month, and restriction of freedom for a year. During the period of restriction of freedom, the court also banned believers from traveling outside Moscow and the Moscow Region.

Family members came to support the believers

"The verdict is actually a way to prohibit . . . practicing their religion, which is not banned, in a manner not prohibited by law," Ivan Chaikovskiy's lawyer said in his appeal against the verdict. The defense also emphasizes that in the case materials there is no mention of any actions containing signs of extremism.

The court of appeal panel ruled to slightly change the verdict: it allowed the convicts to choose where to live after serving the main sentence, but ordered them not to leave the boundaries of the chosen municipality for one year. In addition, the court counted Zakaryan's period of hospitalization toward his period of detention as one and a half days for one day. The periods of restriction of freedom were left unchanged.

The European Union and the United Nations have repeatedly called on the Russian authorities to stop persecuting citizens for practicing their religion, and the European Court of Human Rights has fully acquitted Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.