The appeal approved a fine of 500 thousand rubles to Jehovah's Witnesses from Chelyabinsk

On September 19, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court left unchanged the fine of 500 thousand rubles to Jehovah's Witness Ilya Olenin, a portal covering the persecution of believers of this denomination in Russia.

On July 26, the Snezhinsky City Court of the Chelyabinsk Region announced a verdict against Olenin, finding him guilty under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).

The believer was charged with organizing meetings with fellow believers, which “were held in the form of collective religious services, consisting of sequential performances of songs from a special collection of religious teachings, study and discussion of articles and religious literature.”

The case against Olenin was opened in December 2020. Then he and his wife were searched: security forces seized cash and bank cards, Bibles, electronic devices, movie discs and personal notes from two apartments, a garage and a car. Initially, the man was charged with participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), but later the charge was reclassified to a more serious one.

carried out The cassation court left the sentence to Ilya Olenin unchanged, the portal “Jehovah’s Witnesses: the legal situation in Russia.”

June 9 reports - In 2017, the Supreme Court “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” was an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities in Russia. All organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were included in the list of prohibited organizations, after which criminal cases began against believers. recognized that the flow - In June, the European Court of Human Rights banned the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and the subsequent persecution of believers as illegal. From the point of view of the ECHR, the decision to liquidate the organization and criminal cases against Jehovah’s Witnesses is based on an overly broad definition of “extremism”, which in Russian legislation “can be applied to absolutely peaceful forms of expression.” admitted