In Crimea, Jehovah's Witnesses Jailed For 'Extremism,' Sent To Russian Labor Camps
Sergei Filatov had to move from mainland Ukraine, where the Jehovah's Witnesses are legal, to Crimea to take care of his ill daughter. Still image from krymr.com video.
On Oct. 22, a judge in the city of Sevastopol jailed 49-year-old Jehovah's Witness Igor Schmidt for six years on extremism-related charges, to be followed by six years of restrictions. The prosecution presented no one in court who they said had been a victim of Schmidt's exercise of his freedom of religion and belief. If any appeal fails, he is likely to be sent to a labor camp in Russia to serve his sentence.
Schmidt is one of 16 Jehovah's Witnesses in Crimea who have had criminal cases opened against them on extremism-related charges since Russia illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014. He is one of four serving long jail terms — three of them have already been illegally transferred to Russian jails.
Another Jehovah's Witness is on trial in Kerch. A further 11 are under criminal investigation: five in Yalta, two in Armyansk and four in Sevastopol.
The Russian Investigative Committee announced in August that in addition to the five already facing a criminal case in Yalta, further individuals are being sought or identified.
Meanwhile, nearly six months after Russian forces shot dead Crimean Tatar Muslim Nabi Rakhimov in disputed circumstances on May 11, all attempts to get his body released for an Islamic burial have failed. Crimea's Supreme Court rejected his widow's appeal against the denial. Investigators claim that Rakhimov had been killed “in the course of preventing a terrorist act.”
Against international law, Russian law denies the return of bodies of those killed in so-called terrorist operations. In 2007, Russian Constitutional Court Judge Anatoly Kononov described this provision as “absolutely immoral, reflecting the most uncivilized, barbaric and base views of previous generations.”
Prisoner of conscience freed after completing jail sentence
In December 2020, Muslim Renat Suleimanov was freed from a labor camp after completing his four-year sentence. He was punished on extremism-related charges for meeting with other Muslims in mosques to discuss their faith, and accused of alleged membership of the Tabligh Jamaat Muslim missionary movement. After more than 15 months in pre-trial detention following his October 2017 arrest by the Russian FSB security service, the Crimean Supreme Court convicted him in January 2019. Three other Muslims on trial with him for meeting with others in mosques to discuss their faith were given two-and-a-half-year suspended sentences, which they have now completed.
Suleimanov remains on the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service “List of Terrorists and Extremists.” This blocks listed people’s bank accounts and causes problems in finding formal employment, obtaining insurance, buying and selling property and a range of other financial activities.
Russia defying international law
Russia imposed its anti-extremism legislation in Crimea following its March 2014 illegal annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine. This included imposing Russia's 2017 ban of all Jehovah's Witness communities as extremist. The 2009 ban of the Muslim missionary movement Tabligh Jamaat as extremist was also imposed on Crimea.
During monitoring of the internet, the Crimean Human Rights Group found that 13 of 14 providers in 12 towns across Crimea it tested had blocked the Jehovah's Witness international website, the group noted on Oct. 4.
On March 11, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned “the unlawful application of Russian Federation legislation by the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation in the occupied territory (Crimea)” in relation to Russian restrictions on freedom of religion and belief.
Among its recommendations, OHCHR called on Russia to “lift discriminatory regulatory barriers prohibiting or limiting the activities of religious groups in Crimea, including Jehovah's Witnesses and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and “refrain from deporting detainees to serve prison sentences in the Russian Federation and return to Crimea those who were previously deported.”
Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea is not recognized by Ukraine or internationally.
Sevastopol: Six-year jail term, one year of restricted freedom, 6-year ban on activity
On Oct. 22, Judge Lyudmila Tumaikina of Sevastopol's Gagarin District Court found Jehovah's Witness Igor Yakovlevich Schmidt, 49, guilty under Russian Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1, "Organization of the activity of a social or religious association or other organization in relation to which a court has adopted a decision legally in force on liquidation or ban on the activity in connection with the carrying out of extremist activity," according to court records.
Tumaikina jailed him for six years in a general regime labor camp. Prosecutor Valery Yazev had demanded a jail term of seven years. Forum 18 was unable to find out why Yazev demanded such a long prison term. The Sevastopol Prosecutor's Office told Forum 18 on Oct. 28 that he was on leave.
If any appeal fails, Schmidt is likely to be sent to a labor camp in Russia to serve his sentence.
Tumaikina also specified further restrictions once Schmidt completes his jail term. He will be under restricted freedom for one year and under a concurrent six-year ban on educational activity, speaking publicly and publishing in the media and on the internet, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 on Oct. 29.
Two months before Schmidt's release from prison, the prison authorities will be obliged to go to court to request administrative supervision.
Schmidt was arrested during raids on nine homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in the port city of Sevastopol on Oct. 1, 2020. Courts then ordered Yevgeny Zhukov — the former head of the registered community — and three others to be held in pretrial detention.
“During the trial, prosecutors presented not a single victim to the court,” Jehovah's Witnesses noted. Secret recordings of Jehovah's Witnesses were played, although they were often barely audible.
Schmidt insisted he was innocent of any wrongdoing. “If Jehovah's Witnesses were extremists, then they would have acted as extremists,” he told the court. “You never hear of Jehovah's Witnesses using force or brutality against anyone, or that Jehovah's Witnesses call for this.”
Officials arrested Schmidt in the courtroom once the verdict had been read out and took him away to begin serving his sentence, Crimean Solidarity noted the same day.
The senior investigator for especially serious cases, Captain Sergei Bosiyev of the Russian FSB security service's Crimea and Sevastopol Investigation Department, Sept. 24, 2020. The following month, officers raided at least nine homes in Sevastopol.
On Oct. 2, 2020, Sevastopol's Lenin District Court ordered that Schmidt be held in investigation prison while the case against him was being prepared. On March 23, after nearly six months in pretrial detention, Schmidt was transferred to house arrest. A week later, prosecutors handed his criminal case to court for trial.
Four others detained during the October 2020 raids and held in pre-trial detention are facing a separate criminal case in Sevastopol.
Two serving jail terms until 2026
Two Crimean Jehovah's Witnesses are serving long jail terms that they are due to complete in 2026. Both are serving their sentences at the same labor camp in Russia's Rostov Region.
Sergei Viktorovich Filatov, 49, sentenced to six years with five years additional restrictions in March 2020 for meeting with family and friends to discuss religious themes, is due to complete his prison term on Jan. 23, 2026.
Artyom Vyacheslavovich Gerasimov, 36, sentenced to six years in June 2020 for meeting with others to discuss the Bible, is due to complete his prison term on June 3, 2026.
Filatov and Gerasimov are on the Russian Monitoring Service "List of Terrorists and Extremists".
Sevastopol: Appeal rejected, prisoner transferred to Russian jail
On March 29, a Sevastopol court handed down the longest jail term yet in Crimea on extremism-related charges to punish an individual for exercising freedom of religion or belief. The Gagarin District Court jailed Jehovah's Witness Viktor Vladimirovich Stashevsky, 55, for six and a half years in an ordinary regime labor camp, which he is due to complete on July 24, 2027.
Russia's FSB security service claimed that Stashevsky "deliberately took active organizational actions with the aim of continuing the unlawful activities of an extremist organization prohibited by the court".
At a June 30, 2020, hearing, two former members of the registered Jehovah's Witness organization in Sevastopol testified that after Russia's Supreme Court declared the Jehovah's Witness organization extremist and banned its activity in 2017, the Sevastopol organization ceased to exist.
They said that neither Stashevsky nor other organization members conducted any further activity on behalf of the organization. They pointed out the difference between the organization's activities — such as handling legal, financial and administrative matters — and individuals' activities of reading the Bible, praying and singing.
The defense complained that it was unable to question the prosecution’s witnesses — the secret witness Vasilisa Ivanova and D. Korkushko — who had allegedly attended the community before its liquidation in 2017.
Stashevsky was convicted in March under Russian Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1, “Organization of the activity of a social or religious association or other organization in relation to which a court has adopted a decision legally in force on liquidation or ban on the activity in connection with the carrying out of extremist activity.” He denied the charges.
Stashevsky's prison term is to be followed by a seven-year ban on educational activity, speaking publicly and publishing in the media and on the internet. It would be due to end on July 24, 2034, when he would be 68.
Prisoner of conscience denied Bible, illegally transferred to Russia
Following his conviction, prison officials held Stashevsky in Investigation Prison No. 1 in Simferopol in a cell for 16 prisoners. He was allowed daily walks. A Bible was handed in to the prison for him on 24 April, but it appears prison officials did not hand it over to him, Jehovah's Witnesses noted. He did receive letters from friends.
Stashevsky appealed against his conviction, but on 10 August Judge Vitaly Avkhimov of Sevastopol City Court upheld the sentence, according to court records.
Stashevsky is on the Russian Rosfinmonitoring "List of Terrorists and Extremists".
On 30 August, prison officials began Stashevsky's transfer to Russia to serve his jail term in a prison in Krasnodar Region in southern European Russia.
Prisoner of conscience Stashevsky's transfer to Russia – like other transfers - was against international law. The 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War covers the rights of civilians in territories occupied by another state (described as "protected persons"). Article 76 includes the provision: "Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein."
Prisoner of conscience Stashevsky was held in quarantine. Prison officials then put him in a punishment cell, saying this was because of the serious charges for which he had been convicted rather than because of any violation of prison rules.
Muslim prisoner of conscience Suliemanov was also illegally placed in a punishment cell on arrival in a Russian laborr camp.
Stashevsky's lawyer was able to visit him in labor camp in September. He noted that Stashevsky had not been handed any letters since his arrival but was able to re-read letters he had brought with him from the Investigation Prison in Simferopol and read the Bible, Jehovah's Witnesses noted on Sept. 20. He remained especially concerned about his sick mother who he had cared for and who had suffered a stroke and a severe fracture shortly before the lawyer's visit.
An official of the prison – who did not give her name - refused to tell Forum 18 on Oct. 28 whether Stashevsky is still in the punishment cell and, if so, explain why. "It is forbidden for us to give such information by telephone."
Kerch: Trial resumes in November
The trial of Jehovah's Witness Artyom Alekseyevich Shably (born Nov. 11, 1990) began at Kerch City Court on 24 May. He is facing charges underRussian Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1.1("Inclination, recruitment or other involvement of a person in an extremist organisation"). The most recent hearing was on 11 October, with the next hearing under Judge Irina Altanets due on Nov. 10, according to court records.
Prisoner of conscience Shably was arrested on May 26, 2020 during raids on suspected Jehovah's Witnesses. Shably lives with his wife, their two young children, and his mother. Officers broke the window in the hallway to gain entrance. Shably's four-year-old son cut his foot on the broken glass lying on the floor. Officers put Shably in handcuffs, forcing him to stand with his head against the wall for several hours in light clothing in the cold wind through the door and broken window before taking him away.
He was accused of "attracting others into the activity of an extremist organization"because he talked to the Investigator about the Bible. While Shably was in detention, officers summoned his wife for interrogation. "The Investigator tried to pressure her, threatening to imprison her husband," Jehovah's Witnesses said. Officers released her later that day.
At the opening of the trial on May 24, 2021, about 20 of Shably's supporters came to the court, but officials did not allow them in, Jehovah's Witnesses said. Officers of the police and traffic police took passport details of the supporters and told them waiting near the court was banned.
During the trial, Shably stated that he and his family are victims of Russia's FSB security service.
Yalta: Five under criminal investigation
Investigators continue to pursue criminal cases against at least 12 other Crimean Jehovah's Witnesses, five of them in the southern Crimean city of Yalta.
On March 4, Senior Investigator Vladimir Novikov of the Russian Investigative Committee's Department for Investigating Especially Important Cases opened a case against Taras Grigoryevich Kuzio (born June 19, 1978), who lives in Yalta, underRussian Criminal Code Article 282.3, Part 1("Financing of extremist activity"). Exactly a week later, officers raided the homes of at least nine Jehovah's Witnesses in Yalta. On March 12, Simferopol's Kiev District Court rejected the investigator's request to hold Kuzio in pre-trial detention because he has two young children, instead ordering house arrest.
In March 2019, Russian officersraided eight Jehovah's Witness family homes in and around Yalta. Officers seized religious literature, money and other documents, and took several people for interrogation. Both current prisoner of conscience Gerasimov (see above) and Kuzio had to sign a pledge not to leave the area. The criminal case reached court in September 2019.
In February 2020, Kuzio's home was again raided, officers intending to use a grinding machine to break into his home. But he reached the door to let them in before they could force entry, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. Officers seized electronic devices and personal notes, and the Russian FSB security service refused to explain to Forum 18 why Kuzio's home was raided.
On March 11, 2021 Kuzio's home was again raided after the new case was opened against him under Russian Criminal Code Article 282.3, Part 1 ("Financing of extremist activity").
Investigator Novikov opened a criminal case on the same charges against another Yalta Jehovah's Witness Pyotr Alekseyevich Zhiltsov (born Aug. 19, 1987) on July 29, 2021. He was detained the same day. He was then placed under house arrest.
Investigator Novikov also opened cases on July 29 against Taras Kuzio's wife Darya Nikolayevna Kuzio (born 13 March 1982), Sergei Aleksandrovich Lyulin (born Sept. 24, 1984), Tadevos Derenekovich Manukyan (born Oct. 24, 1981) and against Zhiltsov under Russian Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1("Organisation of the activity of a social or religious association or other organization in relation to which a court has adopted a decision legally in force on liquidation or ban on the activity in connection with the carrying out of extremist activity").
Investigator Novikov's telephone went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on Oct. 29.
Yalta: Cases against five combined into one case
On July 20, 2021, Investigator Novikov combined all the cases into one case against all five people: Taras Kuzio, his wife Darya Kuzio, Sergei Lyulin, Tadevos Manukyan, and Pyotr Zhiltsov.
On 10 August, border guards near Belgorod in southern European Russia detained Lyulin as he tried to cross the border into Ukraine. The following day, Investigator Novikov and police officers, all in plain clothes, arrived and placed Lyulin in a minibus for the journey back to Crimea.
"They push the believer into the luggage compartment of the minibus, handcuff his hands to the ceiling handrails on both sides of the cabin, and tape his legs to the seat," Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. During the journey, which lasts 16 hours, officers offered Lyulin food and drink but he refused.
Once in Simferopol, officers took Lyulin to Investigation Prison No. 1 in Simferopol. On Aug. 13, Simferopol's Kiev District Court ordered him held in detention until Sept. 4. His pre-trial detention was later extended. Lyulin was initially held in a cell with 15 others, many of whom smoked. He also contracted coronavirus. He was later transferred to a cell for two.
On Aug. 16, at the request of Investigator Novikov, Kiev District Court authorized a house search in the town of Yevpatoriya, 160 km (100 miles) from Yalta, where he suspected Jehovah's Witnesses were meeting. One of the residents of the house was ill in bed and officers had to call an ambulance. After a two-hour search, officers took nothing, apologized for the false report and left.
An Aug. 17 Investigative Committee report on the criminal case reported the detention of Lyulin near Belgorod in Russia and his pre-trial detention in Simferopol, though without identifying him by name. While noting that five people were subjects of the case, it added: "Another participant of the group is now wanted, and a range of further individuals who took part in the activity of the banned religious organization are being established."
Of the Yalta five, Taras Kuzio and Zhiltsov are under house arrest, while Darya Kuzio had to sign a pledge not to leave the area. Manukyan appears not to be under any restrictions.
Armyansk: Two under criminal investigation
On Aug. 2, Russian FSB Senior Investigator Vitaly Vlasov launched criminal cases against two men in the northern Crimean town of Armyansk, Aleksandr Fyodorovich Dubovenko (born Mar. 31, 1973) and Aleksandr Viktorovich Litvinyuk (born 3 November 1960) underRussian Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1("Organisation of the activity of a social or religious association or other organization in relation to which a court has adopted a decision legally in force on liquidation or ban on the activity in connection with the carrying out of extremist activity"). The Investigator accused them of "using the Zoom video-conference facility" to "attract new members to the [banned] organization".
On Aug. 5, officers arrived in a minibus and cars without number plates and searched eight homes in Armyansk, Jehovah's Witnesses noted. The searches at the homes of Dubovenko (who was not present) and Litvinyuk lasted nine hours and officers seized computers, personal notes and documents about the homes.
Officers took Litvinyuk to Simferopol, 140 km (85 miles) away. The following day, Kiev District Court placed him under house arrest.
On Aug. 9, officers took Dubovenko to the Russian FSB security service headquarters in Simferopol. In his absence, and in the presence only of his wife Aleksandra, officials conducted a second house search. They seized further electronic equipment. Kiev District Court similarly placed Dubovenko under house arrest.
On Aug. 10, the Investigator had Dubovenko and Litvinyuk added to the RussianRosfinmonitoring "List of Terrorists and Extremists".
Forum 18 reached FSB Senior Investigator Vlasov on Oct. 29, but as soon as it began asking about the cases of Dubovenko and Litvinyuk he put the phone down. Subsequent calls went unanswered.
Sevastopol: Four under criminal investigation
Four further Jehovah's Witnesses remain under criminal investigation in Sevastopol: Vladimir Fedorovich Sakada (born Oct. 4, 1970), Vladimir Ivanovich Maladyka (born July 8, 1963), Yevgeny Sergeyevich Zhukov (born Nov. 19, 1969) and Aleksandr Viktorovich Kostenko (born July 15, 1991).
The Russian FSB security service's Investigation Department is investigating the four under Russian Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1 ("Organisation of the activity of a social or religious association or other organisation in relation to which a court has adopted a decision legally in force on liquidation or ban on the activity in connection with the carrying out of extremist activity").
The four were detained after officers raided at least nine homes in Sevastopol on Oct. 1, 2020. Three of the four – Sakada, Maladyka and Zhukov - were ordered held in pre-trial detention, together with Igor Schmidt (who was jailed in October 2021 – see above).
Sakada and Maladyka were transferred to house arrest in March 2021 and Zhukov in May 2021. Kostenko does not appear to be under any restrictions.
Following the October 2020 raids and arrests, Svetlana Sakada, Vladimir Sakada's wife, insisted that her husband "has conducted no crimes against the foundations of the state". She added: "My husband does not admit any guilt". Similarly, Natalya Maladyka, Vladimir Maladyka's wife commented on the early morning raid that: "We don't understand why they treat us like that."
Russian authorities still refuse release of body for Islamic burial
Nearly six months after Russian forces shot dead Crimean Tatar Muslim Nabi Rakhimov in disputed circumstances on May 11, all attempts to get his body released for an Islamic burial have so far failed. Investigators initially claimed that they still needed to conduct a thorough autopsy. They then claimed that Rakhimov had been killed "in the course of preventing a terrorist act".
"Under the norms of Islam, in any circumstances the deceased must be buried within 24 hours before the setting of the sun," lawyer and human rights defender Lutfiye Zudiyeva noted. Against international law, Russian law denies the return of bodies of those killed in "terrorist" operations. In 2007, Russian Constitutional Court Judge Anatoly Kononov described this provision as "absolutely immoral, reflecting the most uncivilised, barbaric and base views of previous generations".
Rakhimov's widow Sokhiba Burkhanova tried to challenge the decision by Senior Investigator Aleksei Skorin that Rakhimov's body cannot be handed over for burial. On Aug. 9, Simferopol's Kiev District Court rejected Burkhanova's appeal against Investigator Skorin's decision.
On Sept. 21, Judge Oleg Lebedev at Crimea's Supreme Court in Simferopol rejected Burkhanova's appeal against the lower court decision, according to court records.
"As we know, there was no terrorist act," human rights group Crimean Solidarity on 22 September quoted the lawyer Siyar Panich. "Rakhimov was killed at his place of permanent residence in the course of an operational investigative action. The investigator [Skorin] presented no other reasons or proofs at Kiev District Court."
Burkhanova, who was arrested on the day Russian forces shot her husband Rakhimov dead in May, is in a detention centre in Russia's Krasnodar Region trying to challenge attempts to deport her to Uzbekistan.
This article is republished with permission from Forum18.
Felix Corley is the editor of Forum 18 News Service, an agency monitoring religious freedom in the former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe.