An Appeals Court Again Reviewed the Case of Yuriy Savelyev and Upheld the Sentence

On August 10, 2022, the Eighth Court of Cassation in Kemerovo denied Yuriy Savelyev his complaint. A 68-year-old believer from Novosibirsk remains in the penal colony.

The decision was made by a panel of judges consisting of Svetlana Zorina and Oksana Lazareva, chaired by Yevgeniy Kolchanov. This is the second consideration of Savelyev's case in the Eighth Court of Cassation.

Earlier, a prosecutor who did not agree with the additional punishment imposed on the believer filed a cassation appeal against the decision of the Novosibirsk Regional Court. In addition to 6 years in prison, he demanded that the believer be given an additional punishment: to deprive Savelyev of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation not only in public, but also in religious organizations for 3 years. Then the cassation returned the case to the stage of appeal, which granted the prosecutor's request. Yuriy Savelyev decided to challenge this verdict, too, by filing a complaint with the Court of Cassation.

During the session in the Court of Cassation, Savelyev managed to have a little video conference call with his friends who came to support him. As it turned out, he had been in a punishment cell for the last 14 days, where he had to spend another 7 days, allegedly because of a violation of the regime. Prior to this, the believer was not given his summer shoes, and only in the middle of summer, after the lawyer turned to the head of the penal colony, the problem was resolved. Despite the difficulties in court, Yuriy Savelyev behaved with dignity and confidently spoke to the judges.

In June 2021, while being transferred to a penal colony, Savelyev was already placed in a punishment cell on trumped-up charges. On August 17, the Altai Regional Court will consider the believer's appeal against this penalty.

On June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights declared the accusations against Russian Jehovah's Witnesses groundless and awarded them millions of euros in compensation for unfair criminal prosecution.