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The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

More sentences passed, one escalated for studying the Bible in Russian-occupied Crimea

05.07.2024   
Halya Coynash
Russia is continuing to find Ukrainian Jehovah's Witnesses, in this case Serhiy Parfenovych and Yury Herashchenko guilty of ‘organizing extremist activities’ for practising their faith

From left Serhiy Parfenovych, Yury Herashchenko, 4 October 2023 Photo JW.org

From left Serhiy Parfenovych, Yury Herashchenko, 4 October 2023 Photo JW.org

The Russian-controlled ‘Krasnohardiiske municipal court’ in occupied Crimea has found Yury Herashchenko and Serhiy Parfenovych ‘guilty of organizing an extremist organization’ for practising their faith as Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The six-year sentences passed on 1 July were, at least, suspended, however it remains to be seen whether the prosecution, which had demanded seven-year real sentences, will challenge the ruling.  Russia’s persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in occupied Crimea has been ferocious, with a number of believers sentenced to 6 years or more. Since these suspended sentences are for the men’s worship and religious study, they could be made real at any time during the lengthy four-year ‘probation term’.  The sentences coincided with a court ruling in Russia ordering a significant worsening of the conditions in which Ukrainian believer and political prisoner Viktor Stashevsky is serving his 6.5-year sentence.

Russia’s persecution of Serhiy Parfenovych (b. 1972) began in September 2022 when armed enforcement officers burst into his home.  After a 6-hour search, witnessed by the youngest of his six children and his invalid father, the FSB took Parfenovych away.  He was held for a month and a half in a SIZO, or remand prison, before being placed under house arrest.   His prosecution was initiated by V. A. Novikov who first gained notoriety for his persecution of several Jehovah’s Witnesses from Yalta.   The charge brought against Parfenovych, then later, in March 2023, against Yury Herashchenko (b. 1979) was of ‘organizing the activities of an extremist organization’ under Article 282.2 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code).  Russia uses specific vocabulary to try to justify religious persecution which even its own constitution prohibits.  Here the men were described as being ““participants in the Krasnohvardiiske cell of the banned religious organization Jehovah’s Witnesses Witnesses” and the original report about Parfenovych’s arrest claiming that “the criminal activities of the organizer of the Krasnohvardiiske cell” had been stopped by the FSB and so-called ‘centre for countering extremism’.

Both Parfenovych and Herashchenko were accused of having organized the supposed “activities of an extremist organization” from April 2017 to September 2022”.  The timeframe says it all since both men have been believers for at least two decades, practising their faith quite legally in Ukrainian Crimea.  While Russia’s invasion and annexation led to harassment of believers, it was only on 20 April 2017 that Russia’s Supreme Court rubberstamped criminal prosecution by outlawing a world faith as ‘an extremist organization’.  Parfenovych was accused of having been ‘the head of the highest body of management’ and ‘ideological leader’, with Heraschenko having supposedly helped him in this.  Both men are alleged to have taken part in “coordinating the activities of adepts”, holding meetings both in real time and online to discuss religious literature, etc. 

There is no ‘ideological leader’ of any community of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the charges against both men pertained to the ordinary activities of any believer.   

This verdict on 1 July, handed down by ‘judge’ Valentin Vladimirovich Shukhalsky from the occupation ‘Krasnohvardiiske municipal court’, comes just days after a damning judgement from the European Court of Human Rights in the Case of Ukraine v. Russia re Crimea.  The Court confirmed the illegality of Russia’s use of its legislation in occupied Crimea and found Russia guilty of virtually every right enshrined in the European Convention and international law, including freedom of religion.

Viktor Stashevsky

Viktor Stashevsky in court Photo JW.org
Viktor Stashevsky in court Photo JW.org

As feared, the Krasnodar regional court in Russia has upheld a major escalation in repression against imprisoned Ukrainian Jehovah’s Witness Viktor Stashevsky (b. 1966) who is serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence for his faith.  For the first time since Russia began such criminal prosecutions at home and in occupied Crimea, a political prisoner has been moved from a medium-security prison colony to a prison, the worst of Russia’s penal institutions.

The transfer was allegedly demanded by the colony administration because of Stashevsky’s supposed ‘infringement of the rules’.  While near certain that this was a mere pretext, the real reason remains unclear. Many Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia have, however, faced new charges or other forms of harassment since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Stashevsky is not a young man, and the conditions in a Russian prison are very bad, with prisoners held in cells, prevented from working or studying, and allowed very restricted movement (‘walks’ under convoy, in a small courtyard, surrounded by barbed wire or grating).  

Viktor Stashevsky is married, with two daughters, and was also caring for his elderly mother.  He was arrested after armed searches were carried out during the night from 4 – 5 June 2019 in at least nine homes in Sevastopol.  Russian state-controlled media claimed that the FSB had detained the “leader of an extremist cell” who had “held meetings, carried out propaganda of the ideas of this religious sect and also attracted new members to it”.  He too was charged under  Article 282.2 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code.

The ‘trial’ took place at the occupation ‘Gagarin district court’ in occupied Sevastopol with Stashevsky, then 55, sentenced by ‘judge’ Pavel Kryllo on 29 March 2021 to six and a half years’ imprisonment.  At the time, this was the harshest of three sentences passed against Ukrainian believers, with the same ‘judge’ previously implicated in the politically motivated persecution of Ihor Movenko.  Although the sentence was still subject to appeal, Stashevsky was taken into custody in the courtroom.  The appeal was ‘heard’ and rejected on 10 August 2021 by ‘judge’ Vladimir Avkhimov from the occupation ‘Sevastopol municipal court. 

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