The prosecution requested nine years in prison for Jehovah's Witnesses from Volgograd

In Volgograd, during the debate on March 9, the prosecution asked for realistic sentences for four Jehovah's Witnesses, according to a website dedicated to the persecution of believers.

The assistant prosecutor demanded that co-religionists Valery Rogozin and Denis Peresunko be sentenced to nine years in a general regime colony, and Igor Egozaryan and Sergei Melnik be sentenced to seven years in prison.

Nine years, as representatives of the confession note, is a record term that the prosecution requested for Jehovah’s Witnesses after the start of their mass persecution in 2017.

All four defendants in the case are charged with organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), Rogozin and Peresunko are charged with sponsoring it (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code). The men do not admit guilt and claim that their faith is incompatible with extremism.

Vyacheslav Osipov is also involved in the case; he is accused under the same two articles as Rogozin and Peresunko. The message on the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia website does not mention him.

The FSB of Volgograd detained seven Jehovah's Witnesses in May 2019 - four of them were placed under arrest, the fifth, Peresunko, was taken into custody in August. Two detainees are serving as witnesses in the case. In December 2020, the measure of restraint for those arrested was changed to a ban on certain actions.

• 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 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were added to the list of prohibited organizations. After this, a stream of criminal cases against representatives of the confession began.
• In February 2021, the courts set real sentences for Jehovah's Witnesses in Khakassia - Roman Baranovsky was sentenced to six years in prison, his mother, 69-year-old Valentina Baranovskaya, was sentenced to two years in prison. In the Krasnodar region, 63-year-old believer Alexander Ivshin was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. As of March 10, 2021, this is the longest term to which a Jehovah's Witness has been sentenced in a Russian court.