Jehovah's Witness Ostapenko sentenced to suspended prison term

Anton Ostapenko found guilty of organizing activities extremist organization.

the 25th of October 2021, the Sharypov City Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory recognized the follower teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses Anton Ostapenko guilty under Part 1 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organizing the activities of an extremist organization) and sentenced him to six years and three months of probation with a probationary period of four years and one and a half years of additional restrictions (which ones, not reported).

Recall that during the debate, the prosecutor demanded to sentence Ostapenko to eight years in a penal colony.

According to investigators, since August 2017 to April 2019, knowing that the Witnesses' Administration Center Jehovah in Russia and the local religious organizations included in its structure, in including the LRO "Jehovah's Witnesses of the city of Sharypovo", recognized extremist, Ostapenko performed the functions of the elder of this liquidated organization, organized and held meetings of followers and participants "in compliance with the characteristic this association of actions and norms of communication during the event, on which encouraged the audience to discuss issues related to religion and activities of the organization."

The believer was detained in April 2019 and taken into custody. In December 2019, he was transferred to house arrest, in February 2020 the court refused to extend this preventive measure. By the summer, the investigation was completed, but in July the Sharypovsky interdistrict The prosecutor issued a decision to return the case to the investigator, stating that the indictment did not meet the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure, was not specified, had significant contradictions, a number of circumstances were not confirmed by the materials cases, during the preliminary investigation, a large number of procedural violations. An attempt by the investigation to challenge this decision turned out to be unsuccessful, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory agreed with the subordinate prosecutor and returned the case to the UK. In January 2021, the case was submitted to court court.

The decision to recognize the management center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 of their local organizations as extremist was adopted by the Supreme court of Russia in April 2017. We believe that this solution, as well as persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in general had no legal basis and became a clear manifestation of religious discrimination.

Sources

• A court in the Krasnoyarsk Territory gave Anton Ostapenko, a Jehovah's Witness from Sharypovo, 6 years and 3 months probation for talking about the Bible. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2021. October 25.