Photo: Evgeny Spirin with his wife

Photo: Evgeny Spirin with his wife

Photo: Evgeny Spirin with his wife

Unjust Verdicts

Ivanovo region-based believer Yevgeniy Spirin's sentence is now in force. The sentence, in the form of a large fine, has not changed

Ivanovo Region

On October 14, 2020, Ivanovo regional court upheld the sentence of Evgeniy Spirin, a 34-year-old believer from the town of Furmanov, who was fined 700 000 rubles for "extremism" by Furmanov town court in July. Given the time spent in detention, the amount payable is 500,000 rubles.

The prosecutor initially demanded that the believer be sentenced to 7 years in prison. In its appeal, the prosecution requested that the case be returned to a new trial, and the defense asked for a full acquittal.

"Extremism" was considered by the courts to be conversations with believers about God. "If Jehovah's Witnesses stop gathering together, how can they exercise the right under the Constitution of our country that they "have the right to confess their beliefs one or with others"? — said Yevgeniy Spirin in his last word. He also stressed that his faith does not threaten the state and society, because "the Bible teaches us to do good deeds and never resort to violence." According to Yevgeniy, the peaceful civic position is proved by the fact that he refused to take up arms and completed a longer-term alternative non-military service.

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 the court sent Yevgeniy to the pre-trial detention center, where he remained for almost six months. He remained under house arrest for another six months and was released in December 2019 without further restrictive measures.

The criminal case against Yevgeniy Spirin was investigated by the Ivanovo region FSB. Special services monitored the believers with the help of an embedded agent, a former police officer who depicted interest in the Bible. Yevgeny was replaced with the reopening of the banned Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization because he did not stop participating in religious meetings of believers.

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 Directorate of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia for the Ivanovo Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court:
Фурмановский городской суд Ивановской области
Case History
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