In Samara, the case of Jehovah's Witnesses was brought to court

Denis Kuzyanin, Sergey Polosenko, Nikolai Vasilyev and Aram Danielyan are charged under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code.

On April 20, 2023, the Samara District Court of Samara received the case of Jehovah's Witnesses Denis Kuzyanin, Sergei Polosenko, Nikolai Vasilyev, and Aram Danielyan. They are accused under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization).

According to investigators, the defendants resumed and continued the activities of the Volzhskaya cell, which was part of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, from December 2020 to December 2021.

The case became known on December 15, 2021, when searches were carried out in 10 houses of Samara residents, after which 16 believers were taken to the FSB for interrogation. The next day, the Samara District Court took Kuzyanin, Polosenko and Vasiliev into custody. During the detention of Nikolai Vasiliev, while visiting a fellow believer, torture was used, Jehovah's Witnesses claimed: after the owner of the apartment refused to give the password to the laptop to law enforcement officers, they began to put a heated kettle on his hands and pour hot water on his hands, feet and neck; this continued until witnesses arrived. A 23-year-old Jehovah's Witness, who was not named in the report, also reported the same teapot torture.

On January 6, 2022, a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code was also initiated against Aram Danielyan; it was merged into one proceeding with the case of Kuzyanin, Polosenko and Vasiliev. Danielyan was detained at the Samara airport, from where he intended to fly to Armenia, and on January 7 he was sent to a pre-trial detention center.

The accused remained in custody until December 2022, when they were released from the pre-trial detention center and a preventive measure was imposed in the form of a ban on certain actions.

The Supreme Court of Russia ruled that the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 of their local religious organizations were extremist in April 2017. We believe that this decision had no legal basis and regard it as a manifestation of religious discrimination. It should also be noted that the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Samara was recognized as extremist back in 2014. In June 2022, the ECHR issued a ruling on the complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses, in which it recognized that the ban on their materials and organizations and the persecution of believers are contrary to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and demanded that criminal cases be dropped under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code against Jehovah's Witnesses and release imprisoned believers.

Sources

• The case against 4 believers is submitted to the Samara District Court of Samara. It will be considered by judge Dmitry Derunov. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2023.
• A raid on Jehovah's Witnesses took place in Samara. Three were sent to a pre-trial detention center, one of them reported being tortured during a search. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2021. December 21.
• Material card No. 3/1-96/2021 // Website of the Samara District Court of Samara. 2021. December 21.
• Material card No. 3/1-97/2021 // Website of the Samara District Court of Samara. 2021. December 21.
• Material card No. 3/1-98/2021 // Website of the Samara District Court of Samara. 2021. December 21.
• Case of Polosenko and others in Samara. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2022. January 10.
• Samara law enforcers turned Jehovah's Witnesses into defendants // Samara time. 2022. January 18.