Another Guilty Verdict Against Jehovah's Witnesses in Crimea, One of the Convicted Persons Is a Father of Six

On July 1, 2024, Judge Valentin Shchukalskiy of the Krasnogvardeysky District Court of the Republic of Crimea convicted two Jehovah's Witnesses, Yuriy Gerashchenko and Sergey Parfenovich. The court gave them a 6-year suspended sentence with a probation period of 4 years.

The story of the prosecution of Gerashchenko and Parfenovich began back in 2022. In September, V.A. Novikov, investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Crimea, initiated a criminal case against Sergey Parfenovich under the article on organizing the activity of an extremist organization. A few days later, a 6-hour search took place in Sergey's house. At the time, his minor daughter and his elderly disabled father, were in the house. Parfenovich was detained, placed in a pretrial detention center for 1.5 months, and then under house arrest. Six months later, in the same case, Yuriy Gerashchenko was charged under Article 282.2(1) of the RFCrC. He spent 269 days under house arrest and later was released under a ban on certain activities.

In July 2023, the case went to court. It took the judge a year to consider it. In his final statement, Sergey Parfenovich said: "The prosecution believes that worshiping Jehovah is extremism. I am in the dock for participating in meetings for worship. That is, in order for me to 'repent,' I need to give up worshiping Jehovah. I can't, and I don't want to do this!" He asked to be cleared of all charges and the label of an extremist. Yuriy Gerashchenko also disagrees with the decision. They can appeal the verdict to a higher court.

In Crimea, 11 of Jehovah's Witnesses have already been convicted for their faith.