Court in Khabarovsk Handed Down Record Harsh Sentences to a Group of Jehovah's Witnesses—Up to Eight and a Half Years in a Penal Colony

The longest terms of imprisonment since the liquidation of legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses were appointed to believers by the judge of the Industrial District Court of Khabarovsk, Roman Chiskovskiy. The decision was handed down on June 20, 2024, after five years of litigation. For Nikolay Polevodov and Stanislav Kim, this is the second sentence for their faith.

Nikolay Polevodov was sentenced to 8.5 years in a penal colony, Vitaliy Zhuk—to 8 years and 4 months, and Stanislav Kim—to 8 years and 2 months. The men were taken into custody in the courtroom. The court sentenced the women to a suspended sentence: 5 years each for Tatyana Zhuk and Svetlana Sedova and 4 years for Maya Karpushkina.

"During the entire trial," Vitaliy Zhuk said, "I never heard what exactly in my words and actions constituted a crime of an extremist nature and what I had to stop doing in order not to be considered a criminal." Nikolay Polevodov expressed a similar thought: "All the facts considered during this trial clearly prove that I am being persecuted not for real crimes, but for my religious views. The prosecution, without even providing evidence of this, is trying to instill the idea that I committed a crime."

The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against six Jehovah's Witnesses in November 2018. On the same day, riot police raided believers who had gathered in a cafe for a friendly party. As a result, Kim, Polevodov and Zhuk ended up in a pre-trial detention center, where they spent 2 months each. They were then under house arrest for 6 to 12 months.

The case went to court in July 2019. Judge Vera Pismennaya examined the case materials for a year, interrogated witnesses, but the essence of the accusation was never clarified. The case was returned to the prosecutor's office, and 4 months later it again went to court.

The defense challenged Judge Chiskovskiy, pointing to a pronounced "bias towards the defendants and the desire for a guilty verdict" at the stage of the judicial investigation. In their request, the lawyers noted, among other things, that the judge limited the right of the accused to familiarize themselves with the evidence in the case, and also allowed himself to reprimand them in a raised voice, "perceiving" some petitions "as personal insults." Roman Chiskovskiy refused his recusal.

At the same time, Stanislav Kim and Nikolay Polevodov were defendants in another criminal case for their faith. The Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Khabarovsk sentenced them to 2 years of suspended imprisonment "for participation in extremist activities," namely: for discussing the Bible and Christian teachings. This sentence is already considered to have been served.

At the time of publication of this text, out of 811 defendants in criminal cases for their faith, 170 people were sentenced to real imprisonment. 105 of them (almost 62%) received sentences of 5 years or more. Those who were sentenced to 8 years or more, 9 people.