In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Dmitriy and Nadezhda Semyonov Were Given Four Years' Suspended Sentence for Sharing Bible Message

On November 8, 2022, Vladimir Bykov, judge of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy City Court,  found the couple Dmitriy and Nadezhda Semenov guilty of extremism and gave each of them 4 years suspended sentence. The verdict can be appealed.

The Semenovs learned about the criminal prosecution in September 2021 — a search was conducted in their home, the believers were interrogated and then released on a recognizance agreement. Three days earlier, Maxim Kudantsev, investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kamchatka Territory, opened a criminal case against the Semenov family under Part 1.1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (involvement in the activity of an extremist organization). The case was based on a letter with biblical advice to treat others kindly, written by the Semenovs, which was received by local resident Elena Turova. The investigation saw in it “words and statements that encourage actions aimed at joining a confession”. After 10 months of investigation, the criminal case went to court.

At the hearing, Nadezhda Semyonova said: “[Turova] replied that her mother had died in the spring and that the situation was very difficult for her. Applying what I had learned from the Bible, namely to love my neighbor and lend a helping hand, I could not ignore her letter. I wanted to answer her and console her in the best way I could.” The woman herself expressed a desire to regularly communicate with the Semenovs on biblical topics. However, later she began to cooperate with the FSB and record these conversations on video.

During interrogation, the key witness for the prosecution admitted that she enjoyed talking with the Semenovs and their friends and that "it was interesting to study the Bible". The woman did not hear any extremist statements or calls for violence from the believers. The testimony of the witness at the court session differed from her written ones, and she could not state which of them exactly corresponded to reality. Despite this, prosecutor Pavel Venin asked the court to sentence the couple to 4 years in a penal colony.

The believers do not admit their guilt. At one of the hearings, Dmitriy Semenov said: “The Bible taught me to love all people ... I am deeply convinced that if every person on earth tried to apply the principles set forth in the Bible, the world would become much better.”

In total, four criminal cases against 8 Jehovah's Witnesses for their faith were opened in the Kamchatka Territory. One of them resulted in acquittal.

Human rights organizations consider the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to be groundless and unjust. In June of this year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the ban on legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and the criminal prosecution of believers are illegal.