On appeal, the Kamchatka Regional Court commuted the punishment of two followers of Jehovah's Witnesses, spouses Mikhail and Elena Popov. This was reported by the press service of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The court decided to reduce the fines imposed by Popov in the amount of 150 thousand rubles. Now, by court decision, the spouses are required to pay fines in the amount of 500 thousand. The rest of the sentence was left unchanged.
According to the prosecution, the spouses participated in religious services, thereby allegedly participating in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).
On February 14, the Vilyuchinsky District Court sentenced Mikhail Popov to a fine of 350 thousand rubles, and his wife Elena to a fine of 300 thousand. Initially, they were accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) and recruitment into it (Part 1.1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). Later, the charge was reclassified to an article about participation in the activities of an extremist organization.
- On April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” as an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities in Russia. In August, all Jehovah's Witnesses organizations were added to the list of prohibited organizations. After this, a stream of criminal cases against representatives of the confession began. In February 2019, the court handed down its first sentence with real imprisonment - Danish citizen Dennis Christensen was sentenced to six years in prison.
- OVD-Info talked about the life of followers of Jehovah's Witnesses under the ban and how they are persecuted .