The Court of Appeal in Nizhny Novgorod approved a suspended sentence for Jehovah's Witnesses

On December 5, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court approved the sentence of Jehovah's Witness Maxim Zavrazhnov under the article on 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 “The actual purpose of the court verdict is to violate [my] rights and force me to change my religion under pain of criminal prosecution,” Zavrazhnov said.

At the end of November, the believer will be sentenced to six years of suspended imprisonment. According to investigators, the man held meetings, collected donations for the needs of a religious organization and “improved his skills in carrying out missionary activities.” In his last word, Zavrazhnov stated that his religious activities were misinterpreted.

sentenced As the portal notes, during the consideration of the case, two prosecution witnesses accused the falsification of their testimony. So, according to one of them, the operative added testimony for her to the interrogation report - the woman that she was subsequently forced to sign a document.

stated claims According to the believers' portal, since 2019, 9 criminal cases have been opened in the Nizhny Novgorod region against 16 Jehovah's Witnesses. Four believers received suspended sentences.

• On April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court liquidated the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia. In August, all organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were added to the list of prohibited organizations. After this, criminal cases began against representatives of the confession. The European Court of Human Rights declared that the ban on the organizations of Jehovah 's Witnesses and the subsequent persecution of believers was 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