The Case of Druzhinin and Bitusov in Zeya

Since 8 a.m., searches have been conducted in the homes of the Bitusovs, Druzhinin and other local believers in the city of Zeya.

The Federal Security Service of Russia for the Amur Region initiates a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation against an unidentified circle of persons.

Judge of the Blagoveshchensk City Court of the Amur Region Efim Bokin orders searches in the homes of local believers.

Early in the morning, senior FSB investigator D. S. Varkentin, accompanied by 2 officers and 2 witnesses, searches the house of Yevgeniy and Nadezhda Bitusov "in order to find and seize items and documents indicating the activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses LRO in Zeya." The search is carried out in the presence of the minor son of the believers. Security forces seize electronic devices, storage media and personal records. The investigator does not provide copies of the court order for the search.

On the same morning, law enforcement officers come to another local believer, Leonid Druzhinin, but he and his wife are at work. The FSB officers waited for the believer at his house, where he returned 2 hours later to change his clothes to testify in court in the case against Konstantin Moiseenko. The security forces took Druzhinin away for interrogation to the FSB department, and after 2 hours they returned to search his house. The search is led by investigator V. S. Obukhov.

Investigator Obukhov issues a decision to bring the 42-year-old father of a minor child, Yevgeny Bitusov, and 52-year-old Leonid Druzhinin as defendants under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation in the activities of a banned association). Since 2019, the same investigator has been conducting several similar cases against a number of believers from Zeya, Tynda, Blagoveshchensk and Belogorsk.

Investigator V. Obukhov reclassifies the charges against Yevgeny Bitusov and Leonid Druzhinin from Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The case of Bitusov and Druzhinin goes to the Zeya District Court of the Amur Region.

About 20 people come to the courthouse, but due to the pandemic, only participants in the trial are allowed to attend the hearing. As it turns out, only the defendant Yevgeny Bitusov received a subpoena for that day.

The prosecutor reads out excerpts from the indictment. The defendants plead not guilty. Yevgeny Bitusov expresses his attitude to the charges and declares his refusal of the appointed defense counsel.

About 10 people come to the courthouse, but only one is allowed to attend the hearing. The judge shall, at the request of the prosecutor, read out the written materials of the criminal case.

Leonid Druzhinin submits to the judge an application for refusal of the appointed defense counsel.

15 people come to support Bitusov and Druzhinin, but only one listener is allowed to attend the meeting. Prosecutor Olga Chursina enters the case. Prosecution witnesses are being questioned.

A woman who attended worship services and kept hidden video recordings gives contradictory testimony. She is not sure if she knows the defendants. Answering questions, he often uses Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and claims that he does not remember much, since 4 years have passed. The court shall read out the records of her interrogations conducted during the preliminary investigation. The defense reminds the witness that the record of her interrogation states that she is a member of the LRO (legal entity). In response, the woman exclaims: "LRO? I don't even know these abbreviations!"

Another witness has known Bitusov for a long time. She argues that the defendant did not speak of the superiority of his religion. The witness was not familiar with the legal formalities of the LRO, she did not see the charter: "There was not one leader, I had not heard about the local religious organization, they just gathered and everyone read the Bible, discussed its contents." Despite the objections of the defense and the defendants, the court reads out her written testimony given earlier. The woman claims that she was "slipped another protocol."

Bitusov's wife, testifying, recalls that on the basis of the law, the Bible, its content and quotations from it cannot be recognized as extremist materials.

After the break, the court reads out the materials from the second volume of the criminal case (there are at least 18 volumes in total).

Four witnesses are being questioned, including an FSB officer, on the basis of whose testimony criminal cases were initiated.

The first woman reports that the defendants are her fellow believers, with whom she read the Bible together. She also says that she has never heard calls for violence or for racial, national or religious hatred from them. The prosecutor reads out the protocol of the preliminary interrogation of the woman, which contains testimony against Bitusov and Druzhinin. The witness states that she did not give such testimony. She says that she was without glasses during the interrogation, so the investigator offered to read the protocol aloud for her, after which she signed it.

Another woman is summoned for questioning. She says that she attended meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses in the worship building until 2017, when it was confiscated. She also says that all believers are equal and no one is in charge. Such services were not meetings of a legal entity.

The next witness echoes the testimony of the previous ones: at the services of Jehovah's Witnesses, believers sing songs, pray and study the Bible using various translations, including Pavsky, Archimandrite Macarius, Synodal and Modern. The defendants, like the others present, worshipped God on an equal footing with everyone else. The woman also never heard extremist statements from the defendants.

Further, they interrogate an FSB officer who carried out operational-search measures against the defendants in 2018-2020. He says that audio and video recordings were made in the house of one of the believers, and criminal cases were opened on the basis of these recordings. The witness does not remember the details and repeatedly asks to read out his testimony. When answering the questions of the defendants, it turns out that the witness does not see the difference between the activities of a legal entity and the services of individual believers.

The court reads out the materials of the case: transcripts of records of worship services, expert opinions, search protocols and other documents.

Religious scholar O. R. Averina concludes: all recordings record meetings of congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses. Psychological and linguistic research confirms that worship services do not contain signs of incitement to religious, national or racial hatred. It concludes that Jehovah's Witnesses are promoting their religion as true. Yevgeny Bitusov claims that the experts exceeded their authority by giving a legal assessment of the content of the meeting recordings.

Only one person is allowed into the courthouse as a listener.

At the request of the prosecutor, the judge reads out the protocols of searches and inspection of seized items, the results of computer examination, transcripts of wiretapping, data from banks and telecom operators.

Despite the objections of lawyers and defendants, the judge decides to read out the record of the interrogation of a witness who does not appear at the hearing, and also refuses to disclose her whereabouts and does not open the door to the authorities.
The defendant Yevgeny Bitusov submits a written request to attach written evidence to the case file (ECHR decision in the case of "MRO Taganrog and Others v. Russia" dated 07.06.2022) and to return the case to the prosecutor's office to stop the criminal prosecution of the defendants. The judge satisfies the petition regarding the inclusion of the ECHR decision in the materials of the criminal case.

Then the defendant asks to attach to the case file the characteristics of the customers to whom he and Leonid Druzhinin made repairs in the apartments, as well as the conclusion of the medical and pedagogical commission on the state of health of his daughter. The judge attaches these documents to the case.

Testifying, Yevgeniy Bitusov says that he began studying the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses in 1994 with his mother, although at first he was against anyone coming to their house.

He goes on to explain that a legal entity has become necessary for Jehovah's Witnesses in order to rent premises for worship meetings and business activities. However, after the ban on this person by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 2017, "the economic activity [of believers] ceased." Yevgeniy notes that "the law did not prescribe that [believers] are not allowed to meet ... This is not a violation of the law regarding religious activity."

The prosecutor asks to assign real terms of imprisonment to believers: Yevgeny Bitusov - 6.5 years in a general regime colony, and Leonid Druzhinin - 7 years in a general regime colony.

The defendants make their final statements. The court begins the announcement of the verdict.

The court sentences Yevgeniy Bitusov and Leonid Druzhinin to 6 and a half years in prison.

The wives of believers visit them in SIZO-1 in the Amur Region. Yevgeny Bitusov says that so far he is alone in a 2-bed cell, and Leonid Druzhinin is with four other prisoners in a 6-bed cell. The believers were not given blankets, because, according to the duty officer, they ran out. Yevgeny's cell is very cold, the window does not close.

Evgeniy and Leonid receive both paper and support emails.

The believers also talk about the conditions of detention in the Zeya temporary detention facility, where they stayed for 10 days: the air temperature in the cell did not exceed +7°C, and the walls were covered with ice in some places.

The Court of Appeal is considering appeals against the verdict from Yevgeniy Bitusov, Leonid Druzhinin and their lawyers.

The prosecutor challenges judges Natalia Trofimova and Yuriy Melnichenko because they participated in the case of Vasiliy Reznichenko in 2021. Judges do not accept the challenge.

Yevgeny Bitusov declares before the appeal board: "In 1991 [Jehovah's Witnesses] were officially registered, but for some reason by 2017 they began to be considered extremists. At the same time, the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses have not changed, we loved God as we loved our neighbor, and we continue to do so to this day." He continues: "I thought that during the court hearings there would be some facts, evidence, some witnesses would be invited to prove my crime, my motive. However, this was not done... In fact, neither I nor Leonid Druzhinin have ever made calls for hatred. The prosecution simply has no evidence."

One of the lawyers cites numerous violations committed by the court of first instance. He files a motion for the examination of evidence. The court refuses and announces the adjournment of the hearing to March 31 at the request of the prosecutor.