The sentence of Jehovah's Witness Evstigneev was confirmed

Jehovah's Witness from Nizhny Novgorod sentenced to a suspended sentence under Art. 282.3 of the Criminal Code.

On August 1, 2022, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court upheld the sentence of Jehovah's Witness Kirill Evstigneev. He was sentenced to three years of suspended liberty under Part 1 of Art. 282.3 of the Criminal Code (provision of financial services, obviously intended to support the activities of an extremist organization). The verdict was handed down on May 12 by the Leninsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod.

The case against Evstigneev was initiated in September 2020 and went to court in November 2021. According to the investigation, with which the court agreed, Yevstigneev paid for the rent of non-residential premises for meetings of members of the banned local community Tsentralnaya, Nizhny Novgorod.

The Supreme Court of Russia in April 2017 decided to recognize the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 of their local religious organizations as extremist. We believe that this decision had no legal basis and regard it as a manifestation of religious discrimination. In June 2022, the ECHR issued a ruling on the complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses, in which it recognized that the ban on their materials and organizations and the persecution of believers are contrary to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and demanded that criminal cases be dropped under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code against Jehovah's Witnesses and release imprisoned believers.

Sources

• An appeal in Nizhny Novgorod approved the conviction of Kirill Evstigneev for his faith. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2022. August 2.