On November 1, 2023, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan upheld the sentence of the first instance—2 years suspended for Tatyana Obizhestvit, 2.5 years suspended for Leysan Bochkareva and 3 years and 1 month in prison for Andrey Bochkarev, who has already served this term in full while in jail.
The prosecutor considered the decision of the court of first instance too lenient and in March 2023 filed an appeal in which he asked the court to "strengthen" the punishment for the believers, as well as to exclude mitigating circumstances from the verdict.
In Tatarstan, 13 Jehovah's Witnesses are persecuted for their faith. One of them, Konstantin Sannikov , is serving his sentence in a penal colony. In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights found prosecutions on such grounds unlawful.
