The court tightened the sentence of Jehovah's Witness Reino-Chernyshova

The Court of Appeal changed the believer's punishment from a small fine to a suspended sentence.

On April 22, 2021, the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region satisfied the prosecutor’s appeal and toughened the punishment for Yelena Reino-Chernyshova, a follower of the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, by sentencing her to two and a half years of suspended liberty with one year of restraint of liberty.

On February 16, 2021, the Birobidzhansky District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region found Reino-Chernyshova guilty under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization) and fined her 10,000 rubles.

The day before, similar punishments - below the lowest limit - were imposed on believers Larisa Artamonova , Svetlana Monis and Yulia Kaganovich . On April 20, 2021, the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region toughened the punishment for Larisa Artamonova - also up to two and a half years of suspended sentence. The court of appeals has not yet considered the sentences of Monis and Kaganovich.

The community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Birobidzhan was declared extremist on October 3, 2016 (even before a general ban was issued on the activities of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 other Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses), and on February 9, 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation approved this decision. We believe that the bans of Jehovah's Witness communities in Russia are unlawful and a manifestation of discrimination.

On June 21, 2022, the Birobidzhansky District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region overturned Reino-Chernyshova’s suspended sentence and expunged her criminal record due to serving more than half of her probationary period, complete serving of the additional punishment in the form of restriction of freedom, no violations of restrictions and a positive reference from the inspection.

Sources

• The appeal in Birobidzhan toughened the sentence for the faith of Elena Reino-Chernyshova: the fine was replaced with a suspended sentence. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2021. April 22.
• The Birobidzhansky District Court overturned the conditional conviction for faith of 54-year-old Elena Reino-Chernyshova. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2022. June 24.