The Court Sentenced Six of Jehovah's Witnesses in Gukovo to 6.5 to 7 Years in Prison for Talking About God

On September 19, 2022, the judge of the Gukovo City Court of the Rostov Region, Natalya Batura, sentenced Aleksey Goreliy and Oleg Shidlovskiy to 6.5 years in penal colony; Nikita Moiseyev, Aleksey Dyadkin, Vladimir Popov and Yevgeniy Razumov each received 7 years in penal colony.

The court considered it a crime to take part in peaceful religious meetings, pray and perform religious songs.

On August 7, 2020, Vitaliy Pyatitsky, an investigator of the department for investigating especially important cases of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Rostov Region, opened a criminal case against six believers under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of the activities of an extremist organization). The next day, the FSB and the Investigative Committee officers searched their homes, and later all six were thrown behind bars, where they spent more than 2 years.

Aleksei Goreliy has a young child, and Oleg Shidlovsky has a teenage daughter.

Currently, 18 people have been persecuted for believing in God in the Rostov Region, 9 of whom have been convicted and sentenced to various terms. Alexander Parkov, Arsen Avanesov and Vilen Avanesov are serving their sentences in penal colonies.

Since 1993, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered more than 50 judgments that protect the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to worship, spread beliefs, use religious literature, raise children in accordance with their beliefs, make their own decisions regarding medical treatment, not take hands weapons for reasons of conscience and many other rights. In addition, the ECHR did not leave a stone unturned in the common myths about Jehovah's Witnesses, recognizing groundless accusations of extremism, a threat to the security of the state and society.