Tatyana Sushilnikova on the day of the appeal hearing. January 2024

Tatyana Sushilnikova on the day of the appeal hearing. January 2024

Tatyana Sushilnikova on the day of the appeal hearing. January 2024

Unjust Verdicts

Court of Appeal in the Kemerovo Region Upheld the Verdict Against Pensioner Tatyana Sushilnikova — a 4-Year Suspended Sentence for Her Faith in Jehovah God

Kemerovo Region

On January 16, 2024, a panel of judges of the Kemerovo Regional Court upheld the sentence of 64-year-old Tatyana Sushilnikova from Novokuznetsk — a 4-year suspended sentence for participating in the activity of an extremist organization.

According to the believer, the verdict of the court of first instance was reached with gross violations of the law and should be canceled. In her appeal, Sushilnikova noted that the court's decision does not contain a description of the illegal actions of which she was accused or specific dates and places when they were committed. Witnesses interrogated by the court admitted that they did not know Tatyana, did not talk to her on religious topics, and did not receive Bible literature from her. A sample of the believer's voice for forensic audio analysis was taken in violation of procedural norms.

"More than 200 pieces of evidence are listed in the verdict... [however] the court does not provide information on how they confirm my guilt. In particular, there are numerous references to personal notebooks, notepads, documents, etc., seized from third parties, in which I am not mentioned and which I have nothing to do with," Sushilnikova stated. Thus, the court considered telephone conversations with her husband to be part of the "evidence" of guilt, while audio recordings were not provided and, accordingly, the content of the conversations was not established.

Tatyana Sushilnikova said that the decision of the court of first instance in reality means the introduction of a ban on religion. She noted: "All my numerous references to the Bible, which requires Christians to worship God together, and was the real motive for my behavior, were not evaluated." By passing the verdict, the court ignored the explanation of the RF Supreme Court that the Russian legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses had been liquidated, and not the actual teachings. At the same time, the expressions mentioned in the verdict "Religious Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses", "International Religious Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses" and "Jehovah's Witnesses" are not legal entities and have not been liquidated by the Supreme Court.

The court of appeal refused to take Tatyana's arguments into account. A similar decision was made by the same court in March 2023 against the the believer's hudband, 67-year-old Sergey Sushilnikov, upholding his 6-year suspended sentence. Judge Zinovyev earlier also declared the detention of the Sushilnikovs' fellow believers, Maksim Morozov and Yuriy Usanov from the town of Taiga, as lawful.

Since the ban on the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017, more than 2,000 homes of believers have been searched, about 400 people have been imprisoned, and more than 730 believers have been charged with extremism.

The Case of Sushilnikova in Novokuznetsk

Case History
In the summer of 2021, homes of Jehovah's Witnesses were searched in Novokuznetsk. A year later, the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case against Tatyana Sushilnikova. She was accused of extremism because of attending meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses and talking about the Bible. In August 2022, the case went to the same court where Tatyana's husband, Sergey, defended his right to practice his religion. At the very first hearing, the judge returned Sushilnikova's case to the prosecutor because of the violations found in the indictment. A month later, in November 2022, the case went back to court. A year later, the judge gave Tatyana a 4-year suspended sentence. In January 2024, the court of appeal upheld this decision.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Kemerovo Region
Locality:
Novokuznetsk
Suspected of:
"personally propagandized the activities of the organization and its ideological attitudes", "participated in missionary activities", "participated in meetings of followers of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, preaching the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses" (from the decision to bring as an accused)
Court case number:
12202320010000232
Initiated:
June 20, 2022
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kemerovo Region - Kuzbass
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (2)
Court case number:
1-45/2023 (1-342/2022)
Court of First Instance:
Kuznetskiy District Court of Novokuznetsk
Judge of the Court of First Instance:
Valeriya Shipitsyna
Case History
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