Photo: Evgeny Spirin

Photo: Evgeny Spirin

Photo: Evgeny Spirin

Criminal trial

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 Region

On 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.

Update. On July 14, the defendant himself spoke in the debate. “I did not commit illegal acts, did not create illegal organizations and did not violate the law of the Russian Federation, and joint discussion of the Bible with friends is an inalienable right enshrined in the Constitution,” the believer said. He drew the court’s attention to the fact that the testimony of witnesses at the trial refutes the prosecutor’s accusatory position. (Yevgeniy’s final statement in court is scheduled for July 21; a date for the verdict has not yet been set, but the court may issue a verdict on the same day.)

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.

Case of Spirin in Furmanov

Case History
After a series of searches in January 2019 in the city of Furmanov, local resident Yevgeny Spirin was interrogated and sent to a pre-trial detention center for 5 months. The FSB in the Ivanovo region accused him of resuming the activities of a banned organization, although Spirin did not harm anyone, but simply professed his faith. During the court hearings, numerous fabrications of “evidence” of Spirin’s guilt were revealed. Thus, an expert handwriting expert revealed a falsification of the search protocol. A neighbor of the Spirins told the court that she did not give a negative characterization to Yevgeniy, who appears in the case. And the prosecution witness turned out to be an embedded retired law enforcement officer. Nevertheless, in 2020, the court sentenced him to a fine of 700,000 rubles, although, taking into account the time spent by Spirin in custody, the amount payable is 500,000 rubles. The verdict has entered into force.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Ivanovo Region
Locality:
Furmanov
Suspected of:
according to the investigation, together with others he conducted religious services, which is interpreted as organising the activity of an extremist organisation (with reference to the decision of the Russian Supreme Court on the liquidation of all 396 registered organisations of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Court case number:
11907240001000003
Initiated:
January 21, 2019
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Investigative Department of the FSB Directorate of Russia for the Ivanovo Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court:
Furmanov City Court of the Ivanovo Region
Case History
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