Two Jehovah's Witnesses sentenced to suspended sentences

Stanislav Kim and Nikolai Polevodov were found guilty of participating in the activities of an extremist organization.

On February 4, 2020, it became known that in Khabarovsk, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court found the followers of the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses Stanislav Kim and Nikolai Polevodov guilty under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization) and sentenced each of them to two years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of two years. The public prosecutor requested that the believers be sentenced to three years in prison with an additional penalty of one year of restriction of liberty.

Kim and Polevodov are also defendants in the case , which is currently being considered in the Industrial District Court of Khabarovsk. Together with Vitaliy Zhuk, they are charged under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization), and three more believers - Tatyana Zhuk, Maya Karpushkina and Svetlana Sedova - under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. The defendants in this case are also followers of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, but the cases were not combined, since the case of six believers was investigated from the very beginning by the Investigative Committee, and the second was initiated by the FSB in the Khabarovsk Territory. And although the FSB believed that the cases should be merged, the prosecutor's office sent the second case to the TFR for further investigation without indicating the advisability of merging.

The accusation of believers of involvement in the activities of the banned organization was due to the fact that in April 2017 the Supreme Court of Russia decided to recognize the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist. We believe that this decision had no legal basis and regard it as a manifestation of religious discrimination.

Sources

• In Khabarovsk, the court found believers Polevodov and Kim guilty under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced to 2 years probation. The prosecution asked for 3 years in prison. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. February 4, 2020