In the photo: Igor Turik, Yuri Vaag, Viktor Kuchkov, Boris Burylov and Alexander Inozemtsev

In the photo: Igor Turik, Yuri Vaag, Viktor Kuchkov, Boris Burylov and Alexander Inozemtsev

In the photo: Igor Turik, Yuri Vaag, Viktor Kuchkov, Boris Burylov and Alexander Inozemtsev

Unjust Verdicts

The Court of Appeal in Perm Upheld the Verdict Against 5 Believers. Conditional Terms From 2.5 to 7 Years Were Approved

Perm Territory

On August 23, 2021, the Perm Regional Court rejected the appeal of five Jehovah's Witnesses. Boris Burylov, Viktor Kuchkov, Alexandr Inozemtsev and Yuriy Vaag were found guilty of participation, and Igor Turik was found guilty of organizing and financing extremist activities. The sentence imposed by the court of first instance has not changed.

In May 2021, the judge of the Industrial District Court of Perm, Viktor Podyniglazov, sentenced Igor Turik to 7 years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 4 years; Boris Burylov, Viktor Kuchkov, Alexandr Inozemtsev and Yuriy Vaag received 2.5 years of probation with a probation period of 3 years. Believers still insist on their innocence. They have the right to appeal against the verdict in cassation procedure, as well as in international instances.

Boris Burylov is already over 80. He is a respected person who has almost half a century of work experience, he has been repeatedly awarded for conscientious work. 52-year-old Igor Turik is raising two children. Alexandr Inozemtsev is 48 years old, he also has a child who is still a minor. For 45-year-old Yuriy Vaag, the criminal case was a continuation of the tragic history of the family: during the Soviet era, his parents were exiled to Siberia on a national basis.

On September 17, 2018, in Perm and other cities of the Perm Territory, searches were carried out in the homes of peaceful believers. FSB officers threatened them with lengthy prison terms. As it turned out, the special services tapped the phones of Turik, Kuchkov and Burylov and conducted covert surveillance behind them.

Igor Turik and Viktor Kuchkov spent 3 days in the temporary detention facility, 101 days under house arrest, and more than 2 years under recognizance agreement. Alexandr Inozemtsev, Yuriy Vaag and Boris Burylov were under recognizance agreement for more than 2.5 years. According to Alexandr Inozemtsev, due to being included in the federal list of Rosfinmonitoring, at first, their family faced serious financial difficulties: “I had to borrow money, since we live in a rented apartment, and the bank account was blocked.”

The believers were helped by the support of relatives, friends and fellow believers from different countries. Igor Turik recalls: “I received a lot of letters and postcards, [friends] gave money and food. There were calls and letters from Poland, Germany, Spain, Austria, USA, Japan... For example, it was very touching to learn that fellow believers in the distant country of Gabon pray for us by name. During this time, we never once needed, although there was no income and we had to pay for a rented apartment."

This is the third verdict that came into force on believers from the Perm Territory. In September 2019, the court upheld the sentence to Alexandr Solovyev, who was fined 300,000 rubles for his faith in Jehovah God. In April 2021, a court in Chelyabinsk approved a fine of 350 thousand rubles to Alexey Metzger.

Despite the fact that there is not a single victim in the criminal case against Turik, Inozemtsev, Burylov, Kuchkov and Vaag, and the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia is not prohibited, believers have had to defend their innocence in courts for almost three years. The prosecution was able to prove only the fact that the men are Jehovah's Witnesses, although they never hid it.

Case of Turik and Others in Perm

Case History
In September 2018, searches were carried out in the homes of believers in Perm and surrounding cities. After three days in the temporary detention facility, Igor Turik and Viktor Kuchkov were placed under house arrest. Shortly before that, the FSB opened a criminal case against them and Boris Burylov. As it turned out, the special services tapped their phones and conducted covert surveillance. Later, 2 more defendants appeared in the case - Alexander Inozemtsev and Yuri Vaag. Turik and Kuchkov spent more than three months under house arrest. In December 2020, the case was submitted to the Industrial District Court of Perm for consideration by Judge Viktor Podyniglazov. In April 2021, the prosecutor requested 9 years in prison for Turik, 7 years in prison for Burylov and Kuchkov, and 4 years in prison for Vaag and Inozemtsev. In May 2021, the court sentenced the believers to suspended sentences ranging from 2.5 to 7 years. In August 2021, the appeal upheld the verdict, and 9 months later, the cassation approved this decision.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Perm Territory
Locality:
Perm
Suspected of:
according to the investigation, together with others he conducted religious services, which is interpreted as “organising the activity of an extremist organisation” (with reference to the decision of the Russian Supreme Court on the liquidation of all 396 registered organisations of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Court case number:
11807570001000085
Initiated:
September 7, 2018
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Investigative Department of the Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Perm Territory
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (2), 282.2 (1), 282.3 (1)
Court case number:
1-26/2021 (1-651/2020)
Court:
Индустриальный районный суд г. Перми
Judge:
Виктор Подыниглазов
Case History