Translated material
In Primorye, a 77-year-old Jehovah's Witness was sentenced to 6 years probation
The Nadezhdinsky District Court of the Primorsky Territory sentenced 77-year-old Jehovah's Witness Vladimir Filippov to 6 years of probation. The European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses reported this to OVD-Info.
Filippov was found guilty under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The former military man was also sentenced to 4 years of probation and a year of restriction of freedom. In addition, the believer was banned from participating in the activities of public organizations for 3 years. The state prosecutor asked to sentence him to 6 years and 6 months in prison.
According to the investigation, Filippov “committed active actions of an organizational nature <...> expressed in convening meetings, organizing religious speeches and services <...> distributing literature with extremist content, and carrying out preaching activities.” As evidence of his guilt, the court was provided with video recordings of worship services from 2017 and audio recordings of conversations about the Bible with a certain B. N. Ulyankin, who feigned interest in the Bible.
At the final meeting before the verdict, Filippov made a long last word.
“Your honor, dear court, all the materials of the case, which the prosecutor referred to as evidence of my guilt, in fact do not prove this guilt,” the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia website quotes Filippov as saying. “I had no idea of intentionally committing a crime against the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the state. On the contrary, I have striven and will continue to fulfill the commandment written in the Word of God, in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, chapter 12, verse 17: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but make provision for what is good in the sight of all men.”
I did not commit a crime, but only exercised my constitutional right to believe in Jehovah God and live in accordance with my religious beliefs. This is not organizing the activities of an extremist organization.”
- The criminal case, in which Vladimir Filippov became a defendant, was opened in 2018. A year earlier, operational search activities were carried out against several Jehovah's Witnesses from the village of Razdolnoye. Their services were secretly videotaped and conversations on spiritual topics were recorded. As part of the criminal case, janitor Grigory Bubnov was given a suspended sentence of 5 years. According to investigators, Bubnov organized a cell of the banned “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” in the village of Razdolnoye.
- 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. OVD-Info talked about the life of followers of Jehovah's Witnesses under the ban and how they are persecuted.