Court of Appeal Confirms Fines for Three Jehovah's Witnesses From Solikamsk

On November 16, 2023, the Judicial Chamber of the Perm Territory Court upheld the main part of the verdict against Vladimir Poltoradnev, Vladimir Timoshkin and Aleksandr Sobyanin. The believers will have to pay fines ranging from 494,000 rubles to 638,000 rubles. At the same time, the court overturned the decision to collect lawyer's fees from them and released Sobyanin's car.

In August 2023, the court found the believers guilty of organizing the activiy of an extremist organization for participating in religious meetings and "discussing questions and topics of a religious nature with followers [of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses]."

In appeals against the verdict, those convicted for their faith drew attention to the fact that all their actions were completely peaceful and that they did not do anything related to extremism. "The court considered the ordinary religious practice of Jehovah's Witnesses, not prohibited by law (gathering for meetings for worship, singing religious songs, praying to God, reading the Holy Scriptures and unprohibited religious publications, carrying out the preaching activity, etc.), prohibited activity, which contradicts the provisions of Article 28 of the RF Constitution," Vladimir Poltoradnev said in his appeal.

The believers drew the court's attention to the fact that according to the appellate ruling of the RF Supreme Court of June 17, 2017, adopted in the case of the liquidation of legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses, "the court of first instance did not assess the legality of the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses and the ways in which they were expressed," but only assessed the actions of specific legal entities. "Recognition of a legal entity as extremist is not tantamount to imposing a ban on a religious denomination with its inherent beliefs, spiritual terminology, the way meetings are conducted," is stated in one of the believers' appeals.

Vladimir Poltoradnev, Vladimir Timoshkin and Aleksandr Sobyanin still maintain their innocence and can appeal the decisions of the courts in cassation procedure.