During the trial, Yuriy Sergeechev and Aleksey Dmitriyev were kept in a cage. In the photo to the right of Aleksey is his wife Anna. December 2025
During the trial, Yuriy Sergeechev and Aleksey Dmitriyev were kept in a cage. In the photo to the right of Aleksey is his wife Anna. December 2025
Court in Adygea Convicted Two Jehovah's Witnesses Aleksey Dmitriyev Will Go to Prison, and Yuriy Sergeechev, 74, Got Suspended Sentence
AdygeaOn December 22, 2025, the chairman of the Teuchezhskiy District Court, Aslanbek Trakhov, announced the verdict in the case of two peaceful believers accused of participating in the activities of an extremist organization—Aleksey Dmitriyev received 4 years of imprisonment in a penal colony, and elderly Yuriy Sergeechev, who has a disability, received 4 years of suspended sentence.
The case against Sergeechev and Dmitriyev was initiated at the end of April 2025. The men were immediately arrested and spent about eight months in pre-trial detention. 74-year-old Yuriy Sergeechev, a disabled person of group III with diabetes mellitus, two heart attacks and frequent severe hypertensive crises. He moves with the help of a cane. On the eve of one of the court hearings, the elderly man had another hypertensive crisis, but he was taken to court. A week later, the situation repeated. The lawyer said: "We stated in court that the defendant had high blood pressure at night - more than 200 upper, lower 115 - but the court did not care much about this."
Despite his serious condition and advanced age, during the hearings Sergeechev was kept in a convoy cage. Human rights activists consider such treatment degrading human dignity and note that he could have been under a milder restriction measure. Only the day before the verdict, Yuriy was released from the pre-trial detention center on his recognizance agreement.
The accusation was based on audio recordings of conversations made by a man who portrayed an interest in the Bible. According to believers, he himself asked for advice on how to help his relatives and repeatedly asked to discuss the Holy Scriptures with him. The defense noted that the case materials did not contain calls for violence or hostility, but the prosecutor requested 5 years in prison for Yuriy Sergeechev, and 6 years for Aleksey Dmitriyev.
Yuriy Sergeechev, in his statement, said that the prosecution did not provide real evidence of the crime and that none of the witnesses characterized him negatively. He asked the court: what exactly does the state consider illegal -- prayer, discussion of the Scriptures or peaceful communication?
In his final statement, Aleksey Dmitriyev asked the court to take into account that his 90-year-old mother needs care. He stressed that extremism is incompatible with his beliefs, since Jehovah's Witnesses do not participate in political struggle, do not take up arms and maintain peacefulness.
The lack of due humanism and legality in court decisions in relation to Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, including the elderly, was noted by the decision of the European Court of Human Rights of October 16, 2025. "As the authorities have failed to prove the applicants' involvement in any socially dangerous actions of an extremist nature, their prosecution and conviction for peacefully practicing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in community with others... had no legitimate purpose or 'public need'," the ruling reads (paragraph 11). Already 89 men and women over the age of 70 are persecuted for their faith in Jehovah God, 6 of them are behind bars.
