Court of Appeal Upheld the Verdict Against the Believers Potapov and Gobozev. They Will Pay a Fine for Practicing a Religion That is Not Banned

On June 18, 2024, the panel of judges of the Supreme Court of the Udmurt Republic upheld the verdict against Sergey Gobozev and Mikhail Potapov. They will have to pay 450,000 and 400,000 rubles, respectively. The court ignored the arguments that the defendants gave in their appeals.

Gobozev and Potapov consider the verdict of the court of first instance unlawful. They are convinced that they are being prosecuted only because they are Christians – Jehovah's Witnesses, practicing their religion in ways not prohibited by law without any extremism. "Finding me guilty," said Sergey Gobozev, "the court did not establish any consequences of my actions ... and did not mention them in the verdict."

Sergey Gobozev drew the attention of the court of appeal to numerous violations of procedural law, including those related to the expert study and the material evidence. None of the questioned witnesses had ever heard extremist statements from him.

Mikhail Potapov stressed that he was accused of participating in peaceful meetings for worship, which he did not even attend. He also noted in his appeal that the state and all officials, are obliged to maintain neutrality and impartiality; they do not have the right to assess the legitimacy of religious beliefs and determine what he can and cannot believe.

In making its decision, the court of appeal did not apply the provisions of Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to which everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.