Court Sentenced Nikolay Saparov, One of Jehovah's Witness From Adygea, to 6 Years in a Penal Colony

On January 17, 2024, Zaurbiy Birzhev, judge of the Maykop City Court of the Republic of Adygea, found Nikolay Saparov guilty of extremism and sentenced him to 6 years in a penal colony with restriction of liberty for 1 year.

The believer does not agree with the verdict and is ready to appeal to higher instance courts. The prosecutor requested 7.5 years in a penal colony for him.

In March 2022, Nikolay Saparov was detained at the airport in Mineralnye Vody, where he was waiting for departure with his wife and minor daughter. He was taken about 300 km away to the law enforcement office in Adygea for interrogation. As Nikolay stated during one of the court hearings, the security forces beat him along the way, and, using a stun gun, tried to force him to plead guilty of extremism. According to investigation, Saparov committed "actions of an organizational nature ... by conducting meetings using the Internet ... coordinating talks and worship at these meetings."

"[He] was told to plead guilty, because then he would be given a lighter punishment," lawyer Ruslan Dedukhov told reporters earlier.

After the interrogations, Nikolay Saparov was taken to his home for a search, which, according to the defendant and his lawyer, was carried out with violations, including without witnesses. As a result, investigators "found" documents and items in Saparov's house that did not belong to him. After that, Nikolay was placed in detention, where he has been for almost 2 years.

The trial revealed the inconsistency of the charges. One of the secret witnesses admitted that Saparov did not urge him to violence or force him to become a member of any banned organization.

The prosecution presented to the court a comprehensive psycholinguistic expert study, which, according to the conclusion of the commission of specialists of the Adygea State Public Association of Linguistic Experts, was carried out with violations. For example, the expert who performed it does not have a higher linguistic education. But the court did not exclude the document from the case file.

Saparov's lawyer, in turn, presented to the court the opinion of religious scholar Ekaterina Elbakyan: she analyzed a video in the case materials showing Saparov gives a talk. According to the expert's conclusions, "there are no signs of propaganda of exclusivity, there is no call for religious discord, enmity and hatred against those who do not belong to Jehovah's Witnesses," in the believer's statements.

"The religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, unlike their legal entities on the territory of Russia, is not prohibited, and, therefore, believers may, on the basis of Article 28 of the RF Constitution, meet during meetings for worship and at any other time, discuss religious and other topics, talk about their religion as private persons, not legal representatives and invite other persons to their meetings to familiarize themselves with their religious activities and doctrines," - the document says.

The prosecution of the believer became a test for his family as well. In his final statement before the court, Nikolay said: "In my indictment it is written that there are no victims, but this is not so. There are victims: me, my wife, my daughter and people close to us. The stress caused by my arrest, detention and further criminal prosecution has caused physical, psychological and emotional harm."

Nikolay's wife, Natalya, said: "I admit that it is very difficult for me to be separated from my husband. Every morning I wake up in tears, realizing that I need to live another day without my beloved. Firstly, I pray until it gets easier. Then I read the Bible."

In Adygea, 4 Jehovah's Witnesses have already faced criminal prosecution; 3 of them, including Nikolay Saparov, are in pretrial detention.