The sentence of Jehovah's Witness Stupnikov was confirmed

Jehovah's Witness Andrei Stupnikov from Krasnoyarsk will spend six years in a colony under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code.

On September 7, 2021, the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court upheld the sentence of Jehovah's Witness Andrey Stupnikov. He was sentenced under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization) to six years in prison, a year of restriction of freedom and a three-year ban on organizational activities in public associations. On August 3, 2022, the Eighth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in Kemerovo upheld the verdict and the appeal ruling.

Stupnikov was sentenced in June by the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Krasnoyarsk. According to the investigators, with which the court agreed, after the liquidation of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses "Krasnoyarsk" he " continued to coordinate preaching religious activities, provided the necessary information, advisory and other assistance, conducted seminars on teaching religion ", while receiving a monetary reward. Stupnikov was detained in July 2018, after which he was arrested. In 2019, he was placed under house arrest and then banned from certain activities. In February 2020, the case went to court .

Jehovah's Witnesses are accused of involvement in the activities of an extremist organization due to the fact that in April 2017 the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local religious organizations were extremist. We believe that this decision, which entailed the mass persecution of believers in criminal proceedings, had no legal grounds, and we regard it as a manifestation of religious discrimination.

Sources

• An appeal in Krasnoyarsk upheld the sentence of Andrei Stupnikov - the believer was sent to a colony for 6 years. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2021. 8 September.
• The case of Stupnikov in Krasnoyarsk. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2022. August 5.