The Novocherkassk City Court of the Rostov Region left Jehovah's Witnesses Gevorg Yeritsyan, Garegin Khachaturyan and Lyubov Galitsyna in pretrial detention for another six months. this . reports The Caucasian Knot
against believers A criminal case was opened in the summer of 2022, when searches were carried out in ten houses of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Novocherkassk. Khachaturyan and Yeritsyan were sent to a pre-trial detention center as suspects under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), and Galitsyna - as a suspect under the article on participation in such activities (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). In September of this year, their case went to court. The case will be considered behind closed doors.
In the spring it became known that Galitsyna’s health was deteriorating in prison. The woman was diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension. She also experiences hearing and vision problems. In February, the pre-trial detention center administration refused to give her a medical examination, saying that her illnesses do not prevent imprisonment “unless diabetes leads to gangrene.” The doctor was only allowed to see her in August.
On December 28, the Novocherkassk City Court of the Rostov Region released Jehovah's Witness Lyubov Galitsyna from custody to house arrest on December 25. This is reported by a portal covering the persecution of believers in Russia.
Other defendants in the case, Garegin Khachaturyan and Gevorg Yeritsyan, remain in custody.
- 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.
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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.”
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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).