Unjust Verdicts

The Appeal Did Not Change the Sentence of Three Believers from Novocherkassk, Including a Woman, 68. Two Men Will Remain Behind Bars

Rostov Region

On September 26, 2024, the Rostov Regional Court, chaired by Judge Sergey Shumeyev, approved the decision of the first instance: Gevorg Yeritsyan and Garegin Khachaturyan will continue to serve their six years and two months and six and a half years in a penal colony, respectively. Lyubov Galitsyna's term of two years and three months in colony is considered served, due to her prior detention.

The trial of the believers started in September 2023. At the hearings, recordings of hidden video filming, which was carried out in the house of Lyubov Galitsyna, were reviewed. The defense drew attention to the fact that there are no defendants in these videos and nothing extremist is happening in them. They also looked at the notes in the believer's notebooks, in which she wrote down her reflections on passages from the Bible to "understand better how to manifest the qualities pleasing to God, such as compassion, mercy." All three believers do not admit their guilt.

The Rostov Regional Court has repeatedly upheld the sentences of Jehovah's Witnesses. So far, 14 people have received up to seven years of actual imprisonment.

The Case of Yeritsyan and Others in Novocherkassk

Case History
In the early August morning of 2022, searches were carried out at the homes of local Jehovah’s Witnesses in Novocherkassk and the village of Hrushevskaya. Half an hour before their searches, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Gevorg Yeritsyan, Garegin Khachaturyan and Lyubov Galitsyna on charges of extremism. The men were interrogated and placed in a pre-trial detention center. A few days later, Lyubov also found herself behind bars. She spent more than a year in a pre-trial detention center, after which she was released under house arrest. Hearings in the case began in September 2023. In June 2024, the court sentenced Lyubov Galitsyna to 2 years and 3 months, Gevorg Yeritsyan to 6 years and 2 months, and Garegin Khachaturyan to 6.5 years of real imprisonment for religion. The court considered the term assigned to Galitsyna to have already been served. Three months later, the appeal upheld the verdict.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Rostov Region
Locality:
Novocherkassk
Court case number:
12202600015000047
Initiated:
August 11, 2022
Current case stage:
verdict did not take effect
Investigating:
Novocherkassk Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Rostov Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (2), 282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-28/2024 (1-451/2023)
Court of First Instance:
Новочеркасский городской суд Ростовской области
Judge of the Court of First Instance:
Николай Егоров
Case History