A court in Birobidzhan sentenced a Jehovah's Witness to a suspended sentence

On October 31, the Birobidzhan District Court sentenced Jehovah's Witness Svetlana Monis to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The website “Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia” is about this.

reports The sentence also provides for a two-year probationary period and restriction of freedom for one year.

Monis was first sentenced on February 15, 2021, when the Birobidzhan District Court sentenced her to a fine of ten thousand rubles. However, on May 12 of the same year, the Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region, during the appeal of the verdict, sentenced the believer to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment.

made a tougher decision, appealed to the court of cassation - it passed the verdict and returned the case for consideration to the appellate instance, the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Later, the EAO court will consider the case again - but in a lower instance, the Birobidzhan District Court.

canceled and ruled - In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the “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. 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. recognized introduced the flow introduced - In October 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court applied the “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 - 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.” admitted