In Vladivostok, an appeals court upheld the sentence of six Jehovah's Witnesses

In Vladivostok, an appeals court upheld the conviction of six Jehovah's Witnesses. They were found guilty under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist community and participating in such activities (Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia website is about this.

reports In November 2019, the Leninsky District Court of Vladivostok sent the case to the prosecutor's office. This decision was approved in January 2020 by the Primorsky Regional Court, but in December of the same year the cassation court sent the case for a new trial. In June 2022, Valentin Osadchuk was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code to six years of probation and one year of restriction of freedom, and believers Nadezhda Anoykin, Nina Purga, Raisa Usanov, Lyubov Galaktionov and Nail Kogai under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code - to two years probation and nine months of restriction of freedom. On September 26, 2022, the Primorsky Regional Court upheld the verdicts.

returned sent sentenced - In 2017, the Supreme Court declared the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” 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. Rosfinmonitoring lists hundreds of Russian followers of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremists and terrorists. Most of the people on the list are believers between 40 and 60 years old. admitted introduced flow the - June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights banning the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and the subsequent persecution of believers is 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.” recognized - In October 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court recognized the application of “anti-extremist” legislation. The document, in particular, states that actions “consisting solely of the exercise of the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, including through individual or joint professing of religion, performing divine services or other religious rites and ceremonies, do not in themselves constitute a crime , provided for in Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (Participation in the activities of an extremist organization -).” According to OVD-Info lawyer Tatyana Glushkova, these changes allow courts to terminate criminal cases brought against former members of liquidated religious organizations (for example, Jehovah's Witnesses). explained OVD-Info