In Kamchatka, the court imposed suspended sentences on previously acquitted Jehovah's Witnesses

The Kamchatka Regional Court again considered the case of three Jehovah's Witnesses from Kamchatka - spouses Snezhana and Konstantin Bazhenov and pensioner Vera Zolotova - and assigned two years of probation to each. A portal covering the persecution of believers writes about this.

The criminal prosecution of the Bazhenovs and Zolotova under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) began in 2018. In September 2020, the believers were sentenced to two years of probation. According to the prosecution, the activities of the extremist organization were manifested in holding joint worship services and talking about God.

The appeal upheld the verdict, but after an appeal in the cassation instance, the case was returned for a second appeal hearing. After this, the court found the believers innocent. In June of this year, the decision was approved by the cassation court. However, the prosecutor's office appealed and demanded that the Supreme Court overturn the acquittal.

On December 15, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of Jehovah's Witnesses from Kamchatka and sent the case for a new trial. After this, it was considered by the Kamchatka Regional Court.

• In 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” as an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities in Russia. All organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were included in the list of prohibited ones, after which a stream of criminal cases against believers began.
• In October 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court clarified 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 - OVD-Info ).” 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).
• In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights declared the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses and the subsequent persecution of believers 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.”