Regional Court in Astrakhan Upheld Harsh Sentence Against Three Believers From Akhtubinsk

On August 31, 2023, the Astrakhan Regional Court upheld the verdict against Sergey Korolev, 50, Rinat Kiramov, 36, and Sergey Kosyanenko, 62, sentencing them 7-years imprisonment. They were charged with singing religious songs and praying together to Jehovah God, which the courts deemed as organizing the activity of a banned extremist organization.

In the appeal, the defense stated that the court of first instance committed numerous violations against Kosyanenko, Korolev and Kiramov. The court did not indicate what specific extremist actions they committed, nor did it prove their criminal motives and intent. The evidence presented by the investigation – recordings of telephone conversations, the results of covert surveillance, the witness testimonies – did not confirm that the believers "conspired" for extremist actions.

According to the defense, the believers from Akhtubinsk were convicted as a result of a miscarriage of justice, and "the actual purpose of the court verdict is to violate the rights of the convicted persons and force them to change their religion or renounce their faith under pain of criminal prosecution." Speaking in court via video conferencing, Sergey Korolev stated: "For what and on what grounds was I sentenced to 7 years? I was tried in the absence of corpus delicti only for my faith." Kiramov and Kosyanenko also denied their guilt in extremism. The convicted persons have the right to appeal the verdict in cassation procedure.

By its decision, the Astrakhan Regional Court ignored the fact that the RF Supreme Court did not prohibit the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses and the right of individuals to practice it. Other Russian courts operate in a similar way, as a result, more than 700 believers have already been subjected to repressions simply for their religious beliefs.