Court of Cassation in Krasnodar Confirmed Verdict Against Six Jehovah's Witnesses From Gukovo: from 6.5 to 7 years in a Penal Colony

On July 25, 2023 the panel of Judges of the Fourth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction, chaired by Igor Konyaev, upheld the verdict and its appeal decision against six believers from Gukovo. All of them are already serving their terms in penal colonies.

Aleksey Goreliy, Oleg Shidlovskiy, Nikita Moiseyev, Aleksey Dyadkin, Vladimir Popov and Yevgeniy Razumov were sentenced to 6.5 to 7 years imprisonment. This harsh sentence against Jehovah's Witnesses was handed down by Judge Natalya Batura of the Gukovo City Court in September 2022. The believers ended up behind bars in August 2020, immediately after investigators initiated a criminal case against them and searched their homes.

The court of appeal upheld the verdict of the court of first instance and the believers filed an appeal with the court of cassation. It says: “Law enforcement agencies have not established a single fact of illegal activity committed by the believers. Even... [during surveillance] nothing was recorded to assert that... Jehovah's Witnesses commit or call for illegal acts. Also, not a single person has been identified who suffered from the activity of the believers.”

The defense reminded the court of thedecision of the Plenum of the RF Supreme Court, in which it confirmed that the actions of Jehovah's Witnesses consisting solely in the exercise of their right to freedom of religion, do not constitute a crime. The court ignored the arguments of the believers and their lawyers.

The estimated date of release from the penal colony of Oleg Shidlovskiy and Aleksey Goreliy is November 2025. The rest of the believers should be released in May-June of 2026.