Photo: Evgeny Spirin
The prosecutor's request includes seven years of corrective penal colony for Yevgeniy Spirin of the City of Furmanov, despite an obvious fabrication of charges
Ivanovo RegionOn July 9, 2020, the prosecutor demanded to sentence 34-year-old Yevgeny Spirin to 7 years of colony, baselessly considering religious conversations extremist. Yevgeny did not plead guilty. On July 14, the debate on the case will continue and he may make a final statement in court. At the same time Furmanovsky city court may pass a sentence.
January 21, 2019, the FSB of Ivanovo region instituted criminal proceedings against Yevgeniy Spirin. Prior to that, special services had been monitoring the believers with the help of an embedded agent, a former police officer, who depicted interest in the Bible. Eugeniy is charged with resuming the activities of the banned religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, as he did not stop participating in religious meetings of believers.
On the first day of the debate in the Furmanov Town Court of Ivanovo region, the prosecutor spoke. He considered Yevgeny Spirin's guilt proved and requested 7 years in prison for him.
"I have never been neither an organizer nor a member of a banned religious organization. I simply profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. My religious beliefs are based only on the Bible", - said, in turn, during one of the previous court hearings Yevgeniy Spirin.
The prosecutor requested a prison sentence for the believer, despite obvious falsifications in the case. In particular, an expert confirmed the fabrication of the search report in Spirin's house, while his former neighbor during the interrogation in court reported that she hadn't given Yevgeni a negative characteristic, appearing in the case.
The second part of the debate is scheduled for 14 July 2020. On that day, the believer's defence will take the floor and Eugene Spirin may also make a final statement to the court. Judge Yuri Gnedin may then pronounce his verdict.
Yevgeniy Spirin was detained on January 27, 2019, when about 10 security officers in civilian clothes broke down the door in the apartment where he lives with his wife, Natalia. At that moment the believers had friends, including an 11-year-old child, an 82-year-old pensioner, and a 70-year-old woman with a disability. Several law enforcement officers pushed Yevgeniy into the kitchen and handcuffed him. Electronic devices, literature, and postcards were seized from those present. Law enforcers behaved rudely, called the crowd a "sect" and threatened to undergo a humiliating inspection.
The next day Larisa Zubova, judge of the Kastrychnitskaya district court of Ivanovo, sent Spirin to the pre-trial detention center, where Yevgeniy stayed for 5.5 months. He was under house arrest for another 5.5 months. December 18, 2019, the court ruled to release Spiryn from house arrest.
According to a decision of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, attached to Yevgeny Spirin's case, the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses have nothing to do with extremism.