Term in a Penal Colony for Their Faith: Court of Appeal in the Primorye Territory Upheld the Verdict Against Three Jehovah's Witnesses. One of Them is a 72-year-old Believer with a Serious Illness

On October 3, 2024, the Primorye Territory Regional Court upheld the guilty verdict against Boris Andreyev, Anatoliy Li and Nataliya Sharapova. The panel of judges reduced the sentences of Li and Sharapova by 1 month. Nataliya served her term in full during her time in the pretrial detention center and is expected to be released soon.

Andreyev and Li will have to spend about 2 years in the penal colony. Speaking before the Court of Appeal, Anatoliy Li said: "I didn't kill, I didn't rob, I didn't go to rallies, did I, but my family is suffering. I just don't believe in God the same as everyone. Is that really a crime?" Boris Andreyev noted: "In the court materials, there is not a single piece of evidence of the cruel charges. And even if someone wanted to look for something like this in my life of 70 plus years, they wouldn't find anything... I simply lived, worshipped God the way it is written in the Bible, wanted to be happy and wished the same for others."

Due to suspected cancer, Andreyev needs regular medical examinations, which are difficult to organize in the detention center. This is how his wife, Aleksandra, commented on the situation: "Transferring him to the place where he will serve his sentence can again delay further tests indefinitely; and the stress that my husband will have to endure with the transfer and the new place, as well as his age and the approaching cold season, can trigger the development of cancer."

Having expressed in their appeals their disagreement with the charges of extremism, Andreyev and Li also pointed out that they were kept in metal cages during the hearings in the court of first instance. Such actions are in violation of article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is noteworthy that in July 2024, the ECHR ruled in the case of several Jehovah's Witnesses from Russia and found such treatment of the defendants "amounted to degrading treatment and a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights" (Article 3).