The court in Chelyabinsk confirmed the sentence of an electrician - Jehovah's Witness

On February 6, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court upheld the sentence of two years probation for electrician, Jehovah's Witness Vadim Gizatulin. A portal covering the persecution of believers writes about this.

On December 7, the Metallurgical District Court of Chelyabinsk found him guilty of participating in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).

The charges were based on audio and video recordings of religious meetings in which Gizatulin participated. The man did not admit guilt. “I have never denied that I am a Jehovah's Witness. But I never belonged to any of the organizations liquidated by the Supreme Court. I did not participate in the continuation of the activities of an extremist organization, but in religious services of believers, which were not prohibited by the court,” he noted at a hearing in the regional court.

“And today I am being judged not because I have done something bad, but because I am Jehovah’s Witnesses, and because I faithfully serve my God,” Gizatulin said in his last word.

The case against Gizatulin was opened in October 2021. Then they came to search him and another believer. The third believer involved in the case was not searched because she was in the hospital after suffering a stroke and coronavirus.

Earlier, believers' homes were searched in connection with another criminal case. They were brought in as witnesses in the case of Vladimir and Valentina Suvorov, who were given suspended sentences.

The believers' portal notes that due to the stress suffered during the search, Gizatulin's wife's chronic diseases worsened, and he himself lost his job, which was the only source of income for the family.

• 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. Rosfinmonitoring has added hundreds of Russian followers of Jehovah's Witnesses to the list of extremists and terrorists. Most of the people on the list are believers between 40 and 60 years old.
• On June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights declared the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses organizations 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.”
• 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).