Aleksandr and Svetlana Seredkin in front of the courthouse, Novosibirsk, 2022

Aleksandr and Svetlana Seredkin in front of the courthouse, Novosibirsk, 2022

Aleksandr and Svetlana Seredkin in front of the courthouse, Novosibirsk, 2022

Unjust Verdicts

The Court of Cassation Did Not Change the Sentence of a 69-Year-Old Jehovah's Witness From Novosibirsk – 6 Years in a Penal Colony for His Faith

Novosibirsk Region

On May 29, 2024, a panel judges of the Eighth Court of Cassation in Kemerovo upheld the verdict against Aleksandr Seredkin. The believer continues to serve his sentence in the penal colony.

Aleksandr attended the hearing via video conferencing. In the cassation appeal, the defendant's lawyer pointed out that in the case there was no evidence of the believer's guilt: " The appealed judicial acts do not indicate any signs of extremism in the actions of Aleksandr Seredkin: not in deeds, not in words. How exactly a peaceful conversation about God with fellow believers jeopardized the constitutional order and security of the state is not specified in the appealed judicial acts".

"On the contrary, all the actions and statements of my client," the lawyer continued, "were exclusively peaceful in nature and did not indicate the presence of hatred or enmity. He was driven not by extremist motives, but his intention to exercise the right to practice his faith in the ways common to Jehovah's Witnesses."

Seredkin has been in the penal colony for almost a year. Apart from him, three other Jehovah's Witnesses in the Novosibirsk Region received prison sentences for their faith.

The Case of Seredkin in Novosibirsk

Case History
The criminal prosecution of Aleksandr Seredkin began in April 2019, when security forces invaded the homes of peaceful residents. During the searches, law enforcement officers planted banned books. As a result of the raid, the FSB initiated a criminal case for organizing and participating in the activity of an extremist organization against three believers: Aleksandr Seredkin, Valeriy Maletskov and Marina Chaplykina. Later, Seredkin’s case was made into a separate proceeding. The believer was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list, which caused difficulties in receiving his pension. Aleksandr spent a day in a temporary detention facility and 6 months under house arrest. In March 2022, the case went to court. The charge was based on the testimony of a secret witness who feigned an interest in the Bible and collaborated with the FSB. In November of the same year, the believer was sentenced to 6 years in a penal colony and placed in a pretrial detention center, and the court of appeal upheld this sentence. A year later, the court of cassation upheld this decision.
Timeline

Persons in case

Seredkin
Aleksandr

Criminal case

Region:
Novosibirsk Region
Locality:
Novosibirsk
Suspected of:
according to the investigation, he "conducted collective worship services based on the Holy Scriptures (the Bible) with followers of the doctrine ... supervised the reading and discussion... religious literature"
Court case number:
12107500001000044
Initiated:
July 21, 2021
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
SO UFSB of Russia in the Novosibirsk region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-277/2022
Court of First Instance:
Октябрьский районный суд г. Новосибирска
Judge of the Court of First Instance:
Евгений Захаров
Case History