The Appeal in Krasnodar Affirmed the Verdict for the Faith of Aleksandr Nikolaev, a Many-Child Father

On October 20, 2022, the Krasnodar Territory Court dismissed an appeal of 49-year-old Aleksandr Nikolaev from the village of Kholmskaya. The father of five children will have to spend another 11 months in a penal colony for participating in an online worship service where he read aloud a passage from the Bible.

The sentence came into effect. The believer still insists on his innocence and has the right to file a complaint with the court of cassation. He has already spent almost 13 months in the detention center, which is added to his sentence on the basis of the principle one day for one and a half. The presumed date of release from the colony - September 19, 2023, but after release, Aleksandr Nikolaev must regularly report to the inspection of the Federal Penitentiary Service for six months at his place of residence. This part of the sentence was added by the appellate court.

In December 2021, the Abinsk District Court of Krasnodar Territory found Aleksandr Nikolaev guilty of participating in the activities of an extremist organization and sentenced him to 2.5 years in a penal colony. The prosecutor asked for a sentence of 3 years in prison for the believer.

Earlier, in April 2021 the house of Nikolayev was searched, Aleksandr was placed on his own recognizance not to leave. In September, an investigator summoned him to the Investigative Committee, allegedly for questioning. However, the believer was detained and taken to court, which sent him to jail.

During the trial, the defense discovered falsifications. For example, the resolution on bringing him as an accused and the indictment were forged after Nikolaev had previously read them. "They added that he was at home, gave an address and indicated that it was between 2017 and April 2020. Sometime in that interval," the lawyer said. However, the judge did not order an examination of the documents for falsification. The lawyer also reported that several pages in the case file had been replaced.

The accusation is based on a recording of a worship service made by security officers using spyware installed on the computer of Nikolaev's father-in-law, Alexander Ivshin (he is already serving a 7.5-year prison sentence for his faith). A total of six residents of the village of Kholmskaya were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment for reading the Bible.

In connection with the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, late Lyudmila Alekseeva, chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, expressed her indignation: "The extremism of Jehovah's Witnesses is expressed in the fact that they believe their faith is true. But, excuse me, what believer doesn't consider his faith to be true?"