In the photo: Valeria and Sergey Rayman
In Kostroma, the Court Sentenced a Family of Jehovah's Witnesses to the Largest Probation Period During Religious Persecution in Russia
Kostroma RegionOn October 9, 2020, Dmitry Balayev, judge of the Sverdlovsk District Court of Kostroma, sentenced Jehovah's Witnesses Sergey and Valeriya Rayman to 8 and 7 years of probation, respectively. This is more than the state prosecutor asked. The believers' guilt is a joint home Bible discussion. The verdict has not entered into force.
The court found the believing spouses guilty both in organization and participation in activity of extremist organization (part 1 and 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). State prosecution asked the court to sentence them to 7 years conditionally each. Believers continue to insist on their complete innocence.
"The very fact that they were found guilty under 2 mutually exclusive articles at once already testifies to complete misunderstanding of the matter among law enforcers, - said Yaroslav Sivulskiy from the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, - In reality Sergey and Valeriya simply enjoyed their constitutional right to freedom of religion, no extremist activity is being involved".
"For some reason, any attempt to exercise their religious beliefs, which no court has banned, is a crime from the perspective of the investigation. No one was harmed by my actions, and the indictment clearly states: 'No victims’. They could not have been, because the main motive of all my actions is love for people. I am not ashamed of my beliefs that helped me to become a worthy man," Sergei Rayman said in his last word.
Valeriya Rayman, addressing to court with last word, has told: "The persecution by the authorities has had an impact on our life, on our physical and emotional health. And now, for over two years, we have been living under constant stress and anxiety. And all this is due to the unfair accusation of extremism. I have not committed any crime and my conscience is clean before everyone."
