A court in Kostroma, after an appeal, partially dropped the charges against a married couple of Jehovah's Witnesses

On March 30, the Kostroma Regional Court excluded the charge of two Jehovah's Witnesses Valeria and Sergei Raiman under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). Thus, both were charged only with organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The portal “Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia” is about this.

reports According to the cards of the convicted on the website, Sergei Raiman was sentenced to three years probation with a probationary period of two years and restriction of freedom for nine months. Valery Raiman - a two-year suspended sentence with a probationary period of two years and restriction of freedom for six months. Apparently, the court counted the punishment previously served by the believers as part of the term of restriction of freedom. The Jehovah's Witnesses portal writes that the court also ordered the destruction of religious literature, not even included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

This was a retrial of the spouses' case in the appellate court. The court of first instance sentenced them in October 2020: Sergei Raiman was sentenced to eight years probation, Valeria Raiman was sentenced to seven years probation. The court sentenced Sergei Raiman to one year more than the prosecutor gave during the debate. February 26, 2021 Kostroma Regional Court sentences: Sergei Raiman was sentenced to three years probation, Valeria - two years probation. At the same time, at that time the court excluded from the charges against both believers the organization of the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), leaving only participation in it (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).

issued a request to mitigate However, on February 10, 2022, the cassation court appealed to the prosecutor to commute the sentence and returned the case to the appellate court.

satisfied The couple were detained in July 2018 after a series of searches at Jehovah's Witnesses in Kostroma - armed special forces broke down the door to their apartment.

As a preventive measure, Valeria Raiman was given a ban on certain actions. Her husband was arrested for two months, followed by a month of house arrest and a ban on certain activities.

In September 2019, the case of the Rayman spouses was sent to the prosecutor's office. The court then pointed out the vagueness of the wording in the indictment and the lack of evidence of the guilt of the believers.

returned “In this case, there is a legal right to practice the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which was not prohibited,” the court decided then. However, in February 2020, the case was brought back to court.

received - April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" was an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities on the territory of Russia. Later, all organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were added to the list of prohibited ones. After this, criminal cases began against representatives of the confession. admitted that a stream of - In February 2020, Rosfinmonitoring more than two hundred Russian followers of the Jehovah's Witnesses religion were added to the list of extremists and terrorists. Most of the people on the list are believers between 40 and 50 years old who are under investigation or sentenced to various punishments under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization or participation in the activities of an extremist organization). introduced - According to Federal No. 114-FZ “On Combating Extremist Activities”, extremism is a violent change of the constitutional system, violation of the territorial integrity of the state, justification of terrorism, propaganda of social inequality depending on various characteristics and discrimination, commission of hate crimes, propaganda of Nazism , as well as calls for such activities and their preparation. law