In Udmurtia, The Verdict Against of Three Jehovah's Witnesses from Izhevsk Has Entered Into Force: Believers Will Be Sent to Penal Colony Following Court of Appeal's Decision

On October 1, 2024, the Supreme Court of Udmurtia upheld the guilty verdict against Maksim Derendyaev, Aleksandr Kutin and Sergey Ashikhmin. All of them were sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony on charges of organizing the activity of an extremist organization. The hearing was attended by 18 people, including the believers' relatives.

The three men filed appeals against the verdict of the court of first instance while in the detention center; they were taken into custody in the courtroom immediately after the verdict was announced in May 2024. They consider thmeselves not guilty. Sergey Ashikhmin noted in his appeal: "The verdict is unlawful, since I am being prosecuted and punished only for being a Christian – one of Jehovah's Witnesses, practicing my religion in a way that is not prohibited." Andrey Kutin stated: "The verdict does not cite any extremist statement on my part. The court has not established against which specific social group I acted, when, in what way, for what purpose and what consequences this led to." And Maksim Derendyaev noted: "All my actions were completely peaceful. The prosecution did not state that I incited violence or religious hatred and enmity." The believers also stressed that the court of first instance did not prove the existence of a motive of religious hatred or enmity in their actions.

Thus, already the second sentence in Udmurtia entered into force: earlier, the regional supreme court upheld large fines against Mikhail Potapov and Sergey Gobozev from Votkinsk.