[{"body":"In connection with the criminal case, Sergey Protasov is suspended from work in the kindergarten, where he worked as a cleaner of the territory.\n","caseTitle":"Case of the couple Bondur and others in Vilyuchinsk","date":"2026-04-03T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/vilyuchinsk2/index.html#20260403","regions":["kamchatka"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"Aleksey was born in February 1978 in the village of Mayna (Khakassia), where he lived his entire life except during his compulsory military service. His mother raised Aleksey and his older sister on her own. She had to work a lot — as a cook in a kindergarten and as a ward assistant in a hospital — so their grandmother helped a lot in raising the children. In her final years, Aleksey\u0026#39;s mother suffered from dementia, and he cared for her until her death in 2023.\nFrom childhood, Aleksey was active in sports and loved boxing. Up until his arrest, he did weightlifting and regularly went to the gym. He also enjoys riding an enduro motorcycle off-road.\nAfter 9th grade, Aleksey immediately started working to help his mother financially. He trained as an auto mechanic, a metalworker, and a bodyguard. He worked in security, and for the last 17 years he was a potline operator at an aluminum plant.\nAleksey began studying the Bible after seeing how it had changed his childhood friend for the better. He wanted to have the same kind of faith. He was impressed by how Bible prophecies are fulfilled in our time. He was baptized as one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses in 2000. \u0026quot;The truth made me more patient and calmer; I became closer to my sister and mother,\u0026quot; he said. Seeing these changes in her son, his mother also became one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses.\nIn 2001, Aleksey married Natalya, who shares his religious beliefs. She has two daughters, whom Aleksey raised as his own. Both are now adults with their own families. The family loved spending time outdoors and sitting by the campfire, enjoying God\u0026#39;s creation.\nAleksey was 2 years away from retirement when, because of the criminal prosecution, he was forced to resign \u0026quot;voluntarily\u0026quot; — he was told the order came from the FSB. After his arrest, all financial responsibilities fell on his wife.\nAleksey\u0026#39;s children and other relatives are outraged by his prosecution. The actions of law enforcement officers took a toll on the health of Natalya and Aleksey: their chronic illnesses worsened. Natalya, who suffered a stroke in 2017 and has a disability, noted, \u0026quot;The separation has deeply affected us emotionally. In 25 years, we had never been apart for so long.\u0026quot;\n","date":"2026-03-11","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/gorokhov/photo_hu_b230e186ef5ee618.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/gorokhov/photo_hu_bfc7385b05e9edf.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/gorokhov/photo_hu_2c354b22a6816ad6.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/gorokhov/photo_hu_d6157e6ada8fb37e.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/gorokhov.html","regions":["khakassia"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Aleksey Gorokhov","type":"prisoners"},{"body":"On January 30, 2026, at the Shakhunya Interdistrict Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Nina Smirnova, Larisa Serdtseva, and Zhanna Zhavoronkova heard the verdict in their case. Judge Artemiy Lunegov handed the believers a 2.5-year suspended sentence \u0026quot;for participating in the activity of an extremist organization.\u0026quot;\nNina Smirnova, 75, is a retired accountant. Her husband does not share her religious beliefs. \u0026quot;He is severly disabled; he also has atherosclerosis in his legs, and it is very difficult for him to walk. Nevertheless, he attended every court hearing to support me,\u0026quot; the believer said about her family circumstances. Larisa Serdtseva, 50, is a seamstress who worked for a cleaning company before the prosecution began. She and her husband have three daughters, two of whom are still at school. Zhanna Zhavoronkova, 43, worked most of her life for the railway.\nThe local branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs initiated the case against these residents of Shakhunya in February 2024. \u0026quot;We endured a search and, since then, have repeatedly faced emotional pressure from some law enforcement officers,\u0026quot; Zhanna recalled. \u0026quot;It affected my health — in November I suffered a stroke.\u0026quot; They read out her charges right in the hospital. Zhanna also lost her job due to media harassment during the criminal prosecution: \u0026quot;Although I was physically weak after the stroke, I was forced to take a new job. This drastically complicated life for me and my loved ones, since I could not care for my bedridden father properly.\u0026quot;\nThe case materials included testimony from two women, Yamorozova and Nepomnyashchikh. The investigation deemed conversations with them to be evidence of a crime. One of them died before the trial. The defense asked that her testimony be excluded, pointing to contradictions that could not be resolved without questioning the person, but the court refused. The believers emphasized that only the Bible was discussed in conversations with these women. \u0026quot;Is it my fault that [Yamorozova] urged me to talk with her on subjects that interested her? ... And feeling compassion for her difficult life I sometimes visited her. What's the crime? Kindness?\u0026quot; Larisa asked rhetorically in her final statement.\n\u0026quot;Who after all was recruited, and into what?\u0026quot; Serdtseva asked in disbelief at the charge. \u0026quot;The witnesses who testified against me had their own faith before meeting me, and they kept it afterward.\u0026quot;\nSince 2017, in Russia, 226 women — Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses — have faced criminal prosecution for their faith; 89 of them are over 60.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2026-01-30T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2026/02/021442/image_hu_d0430cc40ce91c77.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2026/02/021442/image_hu_723296cc1f79ae89.jpg","webp":"/news/2026/02/021442/image_hu_33841a9c4bdee970.webp","webp2x":"/news/2026/02/021442/image_hu_a6d00db73eb7b020.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2026/02/021442.html","regions":["nizhegorod"],"subtitle":"Verdict Against Three Women — Jehovah’s Witnesses from Shakhunya","tags":["sentence","282.2-2","elderly","work-restrictions"],"title":"“What's the Crime? Kindness?”","type":"news"},{"body":"A gardener from Alushta, who raised four children, is being prosecuted for his faith in Jehovah God and for reading the Bible.\nVladimir Chertov was born in October 1972 in Donetsk (Ukrainian SSR). He has a younger sister. As a child, Vladimir liked throwing the javelin, chess and ballroom dancing. During his school years, he mastered the craft of cabinetmaking and later took courses in architecture and arboriculture.\nHis first job was at the mine where his father worked. After his 2-year military service, Vladimir got a job as a carpenter at a construction site, and then as an inspector-repairman of railway cars. Over time, he qualified further and became the shift supervisor of the railway station.\nIn the early 1990s, Vladimir became acquainted with Bible teachings through a classmate. He was particularly touched by the prophecy that righteous people would live forever on earth. In 1994, he was baptized as one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. His mother and sister also studied the Bible.\nIn 1996, Vladimir married Nelly, who was raising two sons from her first marriage. She shares his religious views. Soon the couple had a son together. Later, they became the guardians of a 1-year-old girl and raised her until she was 17. In her youth, Nelly liked parachuting; now she likes knitting, embroidery and Irish lace.\nThe whole family often went hiking in Crimea. They noticed that Nelly and the children felt better there, so they moved to Alushta. In his new place, Vladimir got a job as a gardener in a large landscape park and later took care of private gardens and plants until he was forced to resign due to criminal prosecution.\nThe search in the couple's home took place in the summer of 2025. Nelly experienced severe stress, which caused an asthma attack. Among other things, law enforcement officers seized her medical documents, which made it difficult to obtain the necessary medication and treatment.\n","date":"2025-10-31","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/chertov/photo_hu_b8f75d4853e9aed4.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/chertov/photo_hu_c2a7677a8a92d5be.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/chertov/photo_hu_2a557754419aeff.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/chertov/photo_hu_94d21c6bb13cb5a6.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/chertov.html","regions":["crimea"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Vladimir Chertov","type":"prisoners"},{"body":"On October 1, 2025, 10 Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses from Khabarovsk Territory were convicted at the same time. \u0026quot;The charge for extremism is based on the testimony of interested persons and the assumptions put forward by them, which are not confirmed by evidence,\u0026quot; said one of the defendants expressing the collective position.\nJudge Aleksandr Sokolov gave suspended sentences of 6 years to Mikhail Dorofeev, Nikolay Kovadnev and Radion Shitov and 2 years to Vasiliy Bondarev and his mother Irina, Sergey and Ulita Sachnev, Svetlana Zharkova, Marina Voytko and Ivan Nikitin. The prosecutor requested up to 7 years in a penal colony for everyone.\nMost of the defendants in this case are elderly people and people with poor health. The criminal prosecution left its mark on their condition. Mikhail Dorofeev, 60, needs heart surgery and sometimes it was difficult for him to attend hearings. Ulita Sachneva, 71, suffered a stroke, and her husband Sergey, 74, is suffering from heart failure. Irina Bondareva, 64, a widow, described her condition as follows: \u0026quot;I don\u0026#39;t even leave the house on my own — I\u0026#39;m afraid of falling due to problems with my vestibular system.\u0026quot; Nevertheless, the believer remains positive: \u0026quot;All difficulties are temporary. It would be outrageous to waste precious time getting depressed and complaining!\u0026quot;\nAs a result of the trial, some believers lost their jobs. Radion Shitov, 53, worked for 25 years as an educational psychologist in a kindergarten for children with disabilities. When he informed his colleagues about his dismissal, they exclaimed: \u0026quot;Really, Radion? What? We know what you're like!\u0026quot; They provided the court with positive character references, pointing to numerous awards, diplomas and Radion winning a teaching competition.\nVasiliy Bondarev, 28, the youngest defendant in the case, was fired from the clinic, where he worked as a paramedic. But he does not despair: \u0026quot;When you focus too much on the prosecution, you get anxious. Therefore, I try to help others in any way I can. This distracts me from my problems and gives me joy.\u0026quot;\nBesides the prosecution, Nikolay Kovadnev, 65, experienced yet another personal tragedy. After the search the health of his wife, who was suffering from cancer, deteriorated rapidly and she died two months later. \u0026quot;The very next day, my friends brought me food and offered to help with the funeral arrangements,\u0026quot; Nikolay recalls. \u0026quot;I really needed their calls and attention at that time.\u0026quot;\nPeople who do not share their religious views stand up for the believers. Radion Shitov\u0026#39;s childhood friend supported him emotionally and even promised to pay the fine (should he be fined), and a neighbor regularly assured him whenever they met, that she was ready to speak in court in his defense.\nThe defendants do not agree with the verdict of the Komsomolskiy District Court of the Khabarovsk Territory. In response to the charge for organizing and participating in the activity of an extremist organization, they stated: \u0026quot;We sang religious songs, prayed and discussed the Bible.\u0026quot;\n","category":"verdict","date":"2025-10-01T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2025/10/031122/image_hu_e91acecee2659c9c.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2025/10/031122/image_hu_80e503eca7470bba.jpg","webp":"/news/2025/10/031122/image_hu_709bcb97f0892610.webp","webp2x":"/news/2025/10/031122/image_hu_3fd4e7b4a3b2ad8f.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2025/10/031122.html","regions":["khabarovsk"],"subtitle":"In Komsomolsk-on-Amur 10 Believers Were Given Suspended Sentences from 2 - 6 Years","tags":["sentence","suspended","elderly","282.2-1","282.2-2","work-restrictions","health-risk"],"title":"\"We Prayed and Discussed the Bible.\"","type":"news"},{"body":"Aleksey Timofeyev believes that a Christian should not use weapons and even learn to do so. Upon reaching military age, he completed non-military alternative service, working as a postman. In April 2024, he was accused of extremism and imprisoned in a pre-trial detention center, considering it a crime to talk to others about God.\nAleksey was born in January 1994 in Petrozavodsk (Karelia). He has two elder brothers and a younger brother. Their parents are retired.\nSince childhood, Aleksey loved to play football. During his teenage years, he participated in school volleyball tournaments, was fond of chess, collected car models, and also bred cacti.\nAfter school, Aleksey graduated from a technical school and received the qualification of an electrical technician. For some time he worked in private construction companies. Sometimes the young man was engaged in tutoring—he taught mathematics. He also worked in the field of cleanliness.\nAleksey\u0026#39;s mother was the first in the Timofeyev family to become interested in biblical teachings, so from early childhood she instilled high moral standards in her son. At the age of 12, he read the Bible. He was touched by the prophecies and historical accuracy of the Holy Scriptures, and he developed a desire to help people learn about God. At the age of 19, Aleksey decided to become one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses.\nIn 2020, Aleksey met Marina, and 2 years later they got married. Marina is a civil engineer by profession, she worked as a surveyor in her hometown of Cherepovets (Vologda region) at a large metallurgical plant. Since her marriage, she has been working in the field of ecology. Aleksey loves to play volleyball with friends and ski with his wife. Marina is a creative person; she paints oil paintings and makes gifts in the style of scrapbooking.\nDue to imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center, Aleksey lost his job. Spouses have a hard time tolerating separation from each other. Aleksey\u0026#39;s parents and brothers consider his persecution unfair and unreasonable, as they know Aleksey as a kind, sympathetic and honest person.\n","date":"2024-04-18","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/timofeyev/photo_hu_7822ca0ca0555f99.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/timofeyev/photo_hu_1d197a41d69ef2e0.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/timofeyev/photo_hu_108a95721d92ff93.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/timofeyev/photo_hu_d7adef74435e6d59.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/timofeyev.html","regions":["karelia"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Aleksey Timofeyev","type":"prisoners"},{"body":"In the summer of 2023, a peaceful believer Valeriy Klokov was prosecuted for his beliefs. He was sent to a pre-trial detention center, where he spent 2.5 months. Then he was under house arrest for almost a year. In 2025, the man was sentenced to three years in a penal colony.\nValeriy was born in August 1985 in the city of Ekibastuz (Kazakhstan). He has two brothers and a sister. In 1996, the family moved from Kazakhstan to Russia. The father is no longer alive, he has not communicated with his son since he was 7. Valeriy\u0026#39;s mother died of cancer when he was 14, and a month and a half later his stepfather left him.\nAs a child, Valeriy was fond of music and reading fiction, loved to compose and perform songs on the guitar. He graduated with honors from a secondary school and with honors from a music school in the accordion class.\nValeriy studied at the Altai Construction College and the Altai College of Architecture and Civil Engineering with a degree in plumber and welder. For several years after graduation, he worked as a shoe repairman, and until he was placed under house arrest, as a plumber.\nStudying the Bible, Valeriy became convinced of its historical and scientific accuracy, as well as the practicality of its advice. All this prompted him at a young age to embark on the Christian path.\nIn 2004, Valeriy married Nataliya, whom he had known since adolescence. She has worked as a cook, salesman, and more recently in the field of keeping clean and order. Nataliya is fond of scrapbooking and soap making, and Valeriy still loves to read, write music and study vocals.\nThe criminal prosecution disrupted the usual way of life of the Klokov family. Valeriy lost his job and cannot provide for his family, as well as take care of his grandmother, who is already under 90 and needs constant care. She needs expensive medicines, and her pension is not enough even for the bare necessities. Nataliya\u0026#39;s health problems also worsened due to the persecution of her husband.\nIn his final plea, the believer said: \u0026quot;My faith does not make me an enemy of the state, it makes me a good citizen of it.\u0026quot;\n","date":"2023-10-09","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/klokov/photo_hu_7df205d10af81190.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/klokov/photo_hu_83b0c6552c514486.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/klokov/photo_hu_f7ec3ba26c086ad6.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/klokov/photo_hu_27fcf4b09ee6a911.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/klokov.html","regions":["altaisky"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Valeriy Klokov","type":"prisoners"},{"body":"Aleksandr Dolganov was born in November 1988 in Togliatti. He has a sister. His parents are retired, but my father is still working.\nAfter school, Aleksandr studied at two technical schools as an electrician. Then he got a job in his specialty and later worked as a locksmith. Since April 2023, he has worked as a call center operator.\nIn 2017, Aleksandr moved to Samara, where he met his future wife, Mariya. About a year later, the young family returned to Togliatti. Mariya works as a support operator in a grocery delivery service. She has been familiar with the Bible since childhood—her mother instilled in her a love for God. Over time, she became convinced that the Bible\u0026#39;s advice was good for her.\nAleksandr also believed in God from a young age and loved to read Bible literature. \u0026quot;Although I didn\u0026#39;t understand much at the time, I hoped that God would be pleased with my attitude towards him,\u0026quot; he recalls. In 1998, his mother met Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses and began studying the Bible. When Aleksandr read Bible stories for children, he was so impressed that he wanted to attend religious meetings with his mother. Aleksandr\u0026#39;s mother was the first to take the Christian path, then he himself and then his sister.\nAleksandr to this day, as in childhood, is fond of chess and radio electronics. Mariya loves pets. She also enjoys playing board games.\n\u0026quot;House arrest has made its own adjustments to our lives. Due to the ban on leaving the apartment, using a mobile phone, the Internet, and mail, I lost the opportunity to provide for my family, so it became a burden on my wife. Also, to control my movement, they put on a tracking bracelet, which had a short range and deprived me of the opportunity to use the entire apartment,\u0026quot; Aleksandr shared.\nRelatives, neighbors and former colleagues are outraged that Aleksandr was unreasonably labeled as an extremist and sent to a penal colony.\n","date":"2024-04-04","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/dolganov/photo_hu_de7cee6b68c1dc5b.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/dolganov/photo.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/dolganov/photo_hu_31c84e5b40663b5a.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/dolganov/photo_hu_7de1953c64cc14dc.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/dolganov.html","regions":["samara"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Aleksandr Dolganov","type":"prisoners"},{"body":"On March 23, 2023, Judge Olga Karulina of the Apatity City Court of the Murmansk Region sentenced Denis Merkulov to a fine of 500,000 rubles. The court's decision was based on the belief that friendly meetings in person and via video conference were the activities of a “prohibited extremist group.\"\nThe decision has not entered into force and can be appealed. The case against Merkulov is based on the testimony of a man who in the past discussed the Bible with the believer and later wrote a denunciation about him to the FSB. Denis stated: \"I do not see anything objectionable about peaceful and confidential conversations, particularly with citizen T., who himself invited me to have these conversations.\"\nIn July 2021, security forces broke into Denis Merkulov's home, knocking out a window and a door with sledgehammers. The search of the apartment, garage, and car lasted about eight hours. The believer was taken to the Investigative Committee for interrogation. He was informed that a criminal case had been initiated against him, and he was detained. The court placed Merkulov under house arrest; as a result, he lost his main source of income. After two months, Denis's preventive measure was replaced with a prohibition of certain actions. During this time, Merkulov wore a tracking device. “Bracelets are usually put on those who are under investigation for serious criminal charges. Emotionally, it is very difficult,\" said Merkulov. He added: \"My wife and fellow believers helped me to cope with negative feelings. Friends called us, encouraged us, and assured us of their love. This was a tremendous source of support.\"\nThe case has been considered in court since August 2022. During one of the interrogations, an FSB officer stated that he considers any religious actions by Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist, even though the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation stated the opposite. “I am convinced, Your Honor, that I am not being tried for a real crime, but solely for my peaceful religion, my faith in God, which is based on the Bible,” Denis Merkulov said in his final statement. “It is thanks to the Bible that my life has changed for the better. Therefore, I [study] it to this day and gladly share what I learn with people who are interested.”\nIn the Murmansk region, seven of Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted for their beliefs; three of them were sentenced to heavy fines. The ruling of the ECHR dated June 7, 2022, which fully justified Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, declares: “States do not have the right under the Convention to decide what beliefs may or may not be taught.” (§ 165)\n","category":"verdict","date":"2023-03-23T15:29:59+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2023/03/241529/image_hu_b023304679c7c77.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2023/03/241529/image_hu_5c7a70c9741d11b0.jpg","webp":"/news/2023/03/241529/image_hu_4e6e56589b287a46.webp","webp2x":"/news/2023/03/241529/image_hu_a2276a9f28d1ede0.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2023/03/241529.html","regions":["murmansk"],"subtitle":"Denis Merkulov Was Convicted for Discussing the Bible","tags":["fine","sentence","282.2-1","work-restrictions"],"title":"In the City of Apatity, the Court Fined One of Jehovah's Witnesses 500,000 Rubles.","type":"news"},{"body":"Tsagan Khalgaeva, having come to work, learns that she was dismissed in connection with a criminal case.\nThe judge of the Elista City Court, Guzel Olyakhinova, chooses a measure of restraint in the form of house arrest for Kishte Tutinova.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Tutinova and Others in Elista","date":"2023-03-01T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/elista/index.html#20230301","regions":["kalmykia"],"tags":["house-arrest","work-restrictions","elderly"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On December 19, 2022, Judge Yana Vladimirova of the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region rendered the following harsh sentences because of religion—Dmitriy Zagulin received 3.5 years in prison, Alam Aliyev recieved 6.5 years in prison, and Sergey Shulyarenko and Valeriy Kriger received 7 years in prison for supposedly organizing and financing extremist activity.\nThe investigation and trial lasted an unprecedented 4.5 years. The trial itself lasted over 2 years. The prosecutor requested that the believers be punished with 4 to 9 years in prison.\nOn May 17, 2018, a large-scale operation code-named \"Judgment Day\" was conducted by 150 security officials in Birobidzhan. During this raid, Alam Aliyev was detained. A criminal case was initiated against him because of his religion, and he spent 8 days in a pre-trial detention center. Later, three more believers were included in Aliyev's case.\nDmitriy Zagulin recalled: “After the searches that took place in our city, at first it was difficult to get used to the idea that we now live in a different reality.” On November 2021, Dmitriy was fired from his job because of the trial.\nSergey Shulyarenko talked about his family's reaction to the criminal case against him: \"My relatives believe that the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses is some kind of misunderstanding.\" He also noted that despite the persecution, believers \"try to come to the courthouse in order to support each other, to assure those who have hearings on that day of their love.\"\nAlam Aliev compared the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in modern Russia with their persecution in the Soviet Union. “If I am considered an extremist, then how many years will I have to wait to be rehabilitated?” the believer asked the court.\nDuring the closing statement, Valeriy Kriger emphasized: “I am determined to continue to do good deeds and to display impartiality to all people, regardless of their nationality, social status and religious affiliation.”\nUpdate. After the verdict was announced, the believers were taken into custody: they were handcuffed and taken in prison vans to a temporary detention center, where they are awaiting an appeal hearing. In total, 23 Jehovah's Witnesses in the region have already been prosecuted for their beliefs. Among them are the wife of Alam Aliyev—Svetlana Monis;the wife of Valery Krieger—Nataliya Krieger; and the wife of Dmitriy Zagulin—Tatyana Zagulina.\nIn its judgment of June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights fully justified Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, stating: “The Court reiterates that only religious statements and actions involving or calling for violence, hatred or discrimination may warrant suppression as being 'extremist' […] The courts did not identify any word, deed or action by the applicants which would be motivated or tainted by violence, hatred or discrimination against others.” (§ 271).\n","category":"verdict","date":"2022-12-19T09:47:15+02:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/12/190947/image_hu_5bc278dbbcb0dfe9.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/12/190947/image_hu_3a2e48b6ccefae50.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/12/190947/image_hu_e131708b749740f0.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/12/190947/image_hu_636414b4a5616332.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/12/190947.html","regions":["jewish"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["282.2-1","liberty-deprivation","sentence","work-restrictions","families","282.3-1"],"title":"Four Believers From Birobidzhan Received From 3.5 to 7 Years in Prison for Reading and Discussing the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"On July 14, 2022, a panel of judges of the Tomsk Regional Court mitigated the sentence of one of Jehovah's Witnesses, Andrey Ledyaykin, 33, replacing the sentence of 2 years and 2 months in prison with a suspended sentence of the same term.\nIn July 2020, FSB and Investigative Committee officers, accompanied by two OMON fighters, arrived at Andrey Ledyaikin’s place of work, the administration of Seversk, to pick him up for a search of his home. After the Seversk Investigative Department opened a criminal case against Ledyaykin in March 2021, he was forced to resign. Rosfinmonitoring has included a peaceful believer in the list of extremists and terrorists.\nOn April 26, 2022, the judge of the Seversky City Court of the Tomsk Region, Yekaterina Soldatenko, sentenced Andrey Ledyaykin to 2 years and 2 months in prison with serving a sentence in a penal colony, although there were no victims and evidence of harm to the state and society in the case. Since then, Andrey has been held in pre-trial detention center No. 1 in the Tomsk region.\nThe believer still insists on his innocence and can appeal the decisions of the courts in cassation, as well as in international instances.\nThe courts of the Tomsk region have already sentenced 6 Jehovah's Witnesses for their faith, including an 80-year-old woman. On June 7, 2022, the ECHR declared illegal the liquidation of the administrative center and another 395 legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, which law enforcement agencies take as a basis for criminal prosecution, although not a single Russian court has banned the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2022-07-14T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/07/151002/image_hu_b81b0c60af66b3f5.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/07/151002/image_hu_cf37f85fee169b8f.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/07/151002/image_hu_9144d6c9218ba2a3.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/07/151002/image_hu_618618e67c723e23.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/07/151002.html","regions":["tomsk"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["282.2-2","appeal","mitigation","suspended","liberty-deprivation","work-restrictions","rosfinmonitoring"],"title":"An Appeal in Seversk Replaced the Prison Term of Andrey Ledyaykin With a Suspended Sentence","type":"news"},{"body":"On April 26, 2022, the judge of the Seversk City Court of the Tomsk Region, Yekaterina Soldatenko, sentenced Andrey Ledyaykin to 2 years and 2 months in a penal colony. The court considered the participation of a believer in peaceful religious meeting as extremism. He is taken into custody in the courtroom.\nAndrey Ledyaykin worked as an accountant in the administration of Seversk for 10 years. In July 2020, Ledyaykin was detained at his workplace. After that, the security forces, in the presence of Andrey's parents, searched his house and garage. The FSB officials exerted emotional pressure on Andrey, forcing him to incriminate himself.\nIn March 2021, a criminal case was initiated against the believer. Soon his boss received a call from the antiterrorist security department of Tomsk, after which the believer was fired. “I had a job that I loved it very much,” said the believer. — I valued and respected my colleagues. And it's simply impossible to express my feelings when the management of the administration asked me to resign because of a criminal case. I lost my regular income. I had to register with the Employment Center and work odd jobs. In addition, Rosfinmonitoring added me to the list of persons involved in extremist activities, restricting access to my bank accounts and cards.”\nThe Investigation Department for ZATO in Seversk investigated the case of Ledyaykin for three months. The accusation against the believer was based on the videos of the FSB agent Kira Klisheva, made during peaceful worship. The believer spent more than a year under house arrest.\nLedyaykin's defense emphasizes that in this case, as in other cases initiated in fact for confessing the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses, there are no victims, there is no evidence of harm to the state and society. The prosecutor asked the court to sentence Andrey Ledyaykin to 4.5 years in prison, but the court imposed a sentence of 2 years, 2 months in prison with serving the sentence in a general regime colony with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to the placement of appeals and other materials in information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, for a period of 5 years, with restriction of freedom for 1 year.\nAndrey Ledyaykin has firmly denied the guilt of extremism and may appeal the verdict. In his last word, he noted: \"Contrary to the assertion of the prosecution that I have a deliberate criminal intent, I still do not realize, despite all the unfounded accusations, what a danger to the constitutional order is posed by joint prayers, reading the Bible, chanting and discussing biblical texts.\"\nIn the Tomsk region, six Jehovah's Witnesses, including an 80-year-old woman, have already been convicted for their faith. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in its decisions has repeatedly pointed out that the practice of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses on the territory of Russia is not prohibited by law, they are not deprived of the opportunity to practice religious services on their own.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2022-04-26T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/04/271429/image_hu_21974172d1e0e12c.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/04/271429/image_hu_318ecd0bb2328f62.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/04/271429/image_hu_e725b9e3de89a59e.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/04/271429/image_hu_f613f7c7ca6e9295.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/04/271429.html","regions":["tomsk"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["liberty-deprivation","sentence","rosfinmonitoring","work-restrictions","282.2-2"],"title":"A Court Sentenced a Former City of Seversk Administration Employee to Two Years and Two Months in Prison for Reading the Bible","type":"news"},{"body":"On March 17, 2022, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court, with the participation of state prosecutor Sergey Gorshkov, considered the appeal of Lyudmila Salikova and approved the sentence—6 years of suspende sentence for believing in Jehovah God.\nThe panel of judges, chaired by Alexandr Rozhnov, considered the verdict of the first instance justified, despite the fact that there is not a single fact of the defendant committing extremist actions in the case file. The testimonies of witnesses also refuted the accusations, and the attached expert examination was carried out by persons without a religious education.\nIn her last speech, Lyudmila Salikova, a veteran of labor and the nuclear industry, said: “Since I became acquainted with the Bible and became a Jehovah's Witness, the commandments ‘love God’ and ‘love your neighbor’ have become the main principles in my life. I try to show love not only to my fellow believers, but even to those who do not share my religious beliefs, who betray me and oppose me. It is impossible to deny that love and extremism are two completely opposite concepts”.\nThe verdict has entered into force. The believer considers the decision unfair and insists on her innocence. The criminal prosecution damaged her reputation and she had to resign from the Municipal Administration, where she had worked for many years as an energy engineer. Salikova has the right to file a cassation appeal.\nDespite the clarifications of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the appeals of Russian and foreign human rights organizations, Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia are becoming victims of repression due to the unlawful application of anti-extremist legislation.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2022-03-17T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/03/211426/image_hu_7096d3bfe85ed6ab.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/03/211426/image.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/03/211426/image_hu_f129414f0c3e48d.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/03/211426/image_hu_fe1b6b007c3c509c.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/03/211426.html","regions":["chelyabinsk"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["appeal","suspended","282.2-1","elderly","work-restrictions"],"title":"An Appeal in Chelyabinsk Left Unchanged Snezhinsk-Based Lyudmila Salikova's, 70, Sentence — A Six-Year Suspended Sentence for Practicing Her Faith in Jehovah God","type":"news"},{"body":"On January 14, 2022, a panel of judges of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court, chaired by Olga Epifanova, upheld the sentence for residents of Pavlov, Aleksey Oreshkov, Alexander Rakovsky and Alexander Vavilov - 3 years suspended.\nBelievers still insist on their innocence. They have the right to appeal the verdict in cassation and international instances.\nThe cases of Oreshkov, Vavilov and Rakovsky, along with several other cases in the region, were the result of mass searches that took place in July 2019 in Nizhny Novgorod and the city of Pavlovo. The Pavlovsk City Court found three believers guilty of extremism, although there were no victims in the case, and the trial itself was held with violations. The line of accusation was based only on evidence that the three men belonged to the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. At the same time, one of the interrogated FSB officers admitted that this religion is not officially banned. No one presented evidence of real crimes in court. Witnesses involved in the court of first instance claimed that their testimony had been falsified.\nAlexey Oreshkov and Alexander Vavilov spent 7 and 8 months in pre-trial detention, respectively. Later, they were chosen a measure of restraint not related to imprisonment.\nDue to unjustified criminal prosecution, Alexander Vavilov lost his job and the opportunity to visit his children and granddaughters, Alexey Oreshkov for a long time could not take care of his mother, a disabled person of group I. Due to his criminal record, Alexander Rakovsky, the father of two young children, faces dismissal.\nHuman rights activists unanimously condemn the repression of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that the decisions of the Russian courts on the liquidation of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses \"do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually.\"\n","category":"verdict","date":"2022-01-14T17:00:52+02:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/01/141700/image_hu_8188568c79b10761.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/01/141700/image_hu_7f373544aca057a7.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/01/141700/image_hu_7f3ac8ce03d7bbcd.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/01/141700/image_hu_2054d367e14b7223.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/01/141700.html","regions":["nizhegorod"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["appeal","suspended","work-restrictions","282.2-2"],"title":"The Appeal Filed in Nizhny Novgorod Left Unchanged Suspended Sentences for Three of Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"Dmitry Zagulin, as usual, was scheduled to take up work on the night shift at the Birobidzhan I (II) railway station of Russian Railways. On the same day, he learns that he has been fired. The reason for his dismissal was the inclusion of information about him as an extremist in the Rosfinmonitoring database, although the verdict against him has not yet been passed. Dmitry intends to appeal the decision on dismissal in court.\nAlthough Dmitry has a railway education, he is forced to register with the employment center so as not to be left without a livelihood.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Aliyev and Others in Birobidzhan","date":"2021-11-23T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/birobidzhan10/index.html#20211123","regions":["jewish"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On August 4, 2021, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Mari El rejected Ekaterina Pegasheva's appeal against the verdict. The believer was sentenced to 6.5 years probation with a probation period of 4 years for talking on spiritual topics, which the court considered \"organizing the activities of a banned organization.\"\nThe verdict entered into force. The believer still insists on her innocence and can appeal the verdict on appeal, as well as in international instances. In her last word, Pegasheva drew the attention of the court of appeal: “Since I, as a citizen of the Russian Federation, am a social person and cannot exist on my own, I interact, communicate with people. Coming to work, people cannot help but talk, because they are connected by a single theme - work. And if it is about faith in God? Can a believer talk to people about his God? Or can he talk about him [only] with himself or with some objects? \"\nOn October 3, 2019, in the Pegasheva case, searches were carried out at three addresses: two in Yoshkar-Ola and one in the village of Pirogovo (Kirov region) where her mother lives. The security forces seized books, videotapes, electronic devices, personal letters and documents, including a school certificate and a certificate of passing the exam. After the arrest, Yekaterina spent about 4 months in the pre-trial detention center. Then she was under house arrest for another 500 days.\nEkaterina Pegasheva became accused of organizing the activities of a banned organization, because, according to the investigation, she \"deliberately continued illegal activities\" - after the ban on religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, she did not stop practicing her faith and continued to talk with others about the Bible. According to law enforcement officers, with all of this, Catherine committed \"a grave crime against the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the state.\"\nHearings in the Gornomariyskiy District Court, which have been going on since October 2020 for 8 months, indicated the groundlessness of the accusations against the believer. The secret witness on the part of the prosecution \"Petrov\" admitted that exclusively peaceful topics were discussed at the meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to another prosecution witness, people talked about God at the services, and Pegasheva never called those present to unlawful actions, as the investigation and the state prosecutor argued, who eventually demanded that Catherine be sent to jail for 7 years.\nDue to unreasonable criminal prosecution for religious beliefs, Catherine lost her job. This deprived her of the opportunity to help loved ones. A young woman helps her mother take care of her bedridden grandmother. According to the believer, stress deprived her of her strength and health.\nRussian and foreign leaders and organizations are concerned about the situation in Russia with regard to Jehovah's Witnesses. In particular, Heiner Bielefeldt, professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who has served as UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief since 2010, explains: “The concept of 'extremism' in legislation remains completely blurred. Which creates a kind of loophole for the authorities, an excuse to do what they want. And Jehovah's Witnesses are the perfect scapegoat. Indeed, many people regard them with suspicion: Jehovah's Witnesses are active, engaged in missionary work. Not everyone likes it - even if they do it exclusively for peaceful purposes - but they exercise their right to freedom of religion and belief. \" He sums up: \"If Jehovah's Witnesses are extremists, then we are all extremists.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2021-08-04T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/08/050821/image_hu_8a8072ad31c449b3.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/08/050821/image_hu_8b2577074e144837.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/08/050821/image_hu_c2e8065001c1713e.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/08/050821/image_hu_cb81fd4f759b5d.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/08/050821.html","regions":["mari-el"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["appeal","suspended","work-restrictions"],"title":"The Appeal in Yoshkar-Ola Upheld the Suspended Sentence of 31-year-old Yekaterina Pegasheva","type":"news"},{"body":"On April 22, 2021, the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region dismissed the appeal of Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova and satisfied the appeal of the prosecutor by toughening her sentence to 2.5 years of probation and 1 year of restraint.\nThe verdict for allegedly participating in the activities of an extremist organization came into force. The believer still insists on her innocence. She has the right to appeal the verdict in cassation, as well as in international instances.\nTwo months earlier, Yelena was convicted by the judge of the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region Vladimir Mikhalev. The prosecutor asked for a real term of imprisonment of 4 years, but the court sentenced the believer to a fine of 10,000 rubles. After that, Reyno-Chernyshova appealed against the verdict in a higher court. The deputy prosecutor of Birobidzhan A.A. Vyalkov also submitted an appeal, considering the verdict, on the contrary, too lenient.\nDuring the debate in the court of appeal, the believer noted: “After the verdict was passed, my relatives, acquaintances and colleagues immediately asked me if I would appeal or plead guilty, and I would agree with such a punishment because it was small. But the point here is not how much was awarded, but that I am innocent. How can I agree with the verdict if I have not done anything illegal?”\nAt the appeal stage, the prosecution continued to insist on the need to deprive Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova of her freedom for 4 years, arguing that the woman “needs to be corrected”. However, no evidence of her illegal activities was provided.\n“What do I need to correct !?” Yelena wondered at the hearing. “I try to live in harmony with the principle ‘to love God and your neighbor, not in words, but in deeds.’ How can you be an extremist by living up to these commandments?”\nYelena Reyno-Chernyshova has been under recognizance agreement for over a year and a half. Due to criminal prosecution, she was fired from her job and her accounts were blocked. The hardships experienced undermined the health of the whole family: Yelena's husband was recently diagnosed with a serious illness, and her mother's heart problems worsened.\nYelena is one of 23 defendants in criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses in Birobidzhan. The persecution of these peaceful civilians began after “Operation Doomsday.” To date, the courts of the Jewish Autonomous Region have already approved four convictions.\nThe groundlessness of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia has been repeatedly emphasized by Russian and foreign scholars and human rights activists. Historian Aleksandr Guryanov, during a recent roundtable dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Jehovah's Witnesses to Siberia, noted: “There is some particular bitterness on the part of the government towards this particular confession.”\n","category":"verdict","date":"2021-04-22T15:41:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/04/22/image_hu_d8f91daafccfb8b2.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/04/22/image_hu_abebe8598fb55580.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/04/22/image_hu_a4125409e977c791.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/04/22/image_hu_dc46e73790ed5c60.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/04/22.html","regions":["jewish"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["appeal","suspended","complaints","fine","282.2-2","recognizance-agreement","work-restrictions","health-risk"],"title":"Appeal Court in Birobidzhan Toughens the Sentence for YYelena Reyno-Chernyshova for Her Faith. The Fine was Replaced with a Suspended Sentence","type":"news"},{"body":"On February 18, 2021, Aleksey Ivashchenko, a Birobidzhan District Court judge of the Jewish Autonomous Region, handed a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence to Konstantin Guzev, a law-abiding construction worker, for participation in extremist activities. In addition, Guzev was given a two-year probation period with the obligation to report once a month to a supervisory authority.\nThe prosecutor asked for 4 years of imprisonment in a penal colony of general regime and an additional 1-year restriction with the obligation to report once a month to the supervisory authorities. The verdict has not come into force. There are no victims in the case. The believer pleaded not guilty and would appeal the verdict. Konstantin Guzev spent the last year and a half being released on his own recognizance.\nThe Birobidzhan District Court is also hearing the case of Konstantin's wife Anastasia, accused of a similar article. The couple faced discrimination on religious grounds - they were forced to resign from the music school. The management motivated this by the fact that \"extremists\" in the children's institution had no place.\nOn May 17, 2018, a large-scale operation codenamed \"Judgment Day\" took place in Birobidzhan, involving 150 law enforcement officers.\nThe criminal case for faith against Konstantin Guzev was initiated on July 29, 2019. The case was separated from the materials of the criminal case against Alam Aliyev. The case was investigated by the Department of the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Jewish Autonomous Region. The investigation lasted about 5 months. The prosecution was based on video footage secretly filmed during religious meetings of believers, and on the testimony of police officer Zvereva, who also acted as a prosecution witness in the cases of Evgeny Golik, Anastasia Sycheva and Tatiana Zagulina.\nOn December 23, 2019, the case went to the Birobidzhan District Court of the EAD. During the court hearings, the prosecutor officially declared the defendant's house the scene of the crime. The charges essentially boiled down to the fact that Konstantin Guzev was reading the Bible with friends at his home via Skype. In court, the believer noted, \"The evidence presented by the prosecutor only confirms that I practice the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. In other words, it proves that there was no corpus delicti in my actions.\"\nIn the Jewish Autonomous Region, one of the regions with the largest number of criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses, 19 cases were brought against 22 believers. Eight local Jehovah's Witnesses have already been convicted for these peaceful people exercising their constitutional right to freedom of religion. Earlier, Judge Alexei Ivaschenko sentenced another believer, Igor Tsarev, to 2.5 years of suspended imprisonment. Ivaschenko is also considering the case of Yevgeny Yegorov.\nKonstantin Guzev became the 70th resident of modern Russia to be punished under a criminal article merely for his profession of faith in the God Jehovah. A suspended sentence with probation condemns the believer to a life of constant fear, since he could go to prison at any time if law enforcement authorities deem his individual confession of faith \"an extension of the organization's activities.\nRussian human rights organizations, as well as the international community, consider the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia unlawful. The Russian Government has stated repeatedly that the Russian courts' decisions to liquidate and ban Jehovah's Witnesses organizations 'do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses and contain no restriction or prohibition to individually profess the aforementioned doctrine'. At the end of January 2021, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin again instructed the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to deal with \"violations of the legislation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, and religious associations.\"\n","category":"verdict","date":"2021-02-18T12:32:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/02/12/12_2_hu_24a7328428e5d472.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/02/12/12_2_hu_25c39a40800174b1.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/02/12/12_2_hu_4cc118e59441bbc.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/02/12/12_2_hu_5978365e5393beea.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/02/12.html","regions":["jewish"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["sentence","families","suspended","work-restrictions","282.2-2"],"title":"A sentencing for a 70th Jehovah's Witness. A Birobidzhan court handed Konstantin Guzev a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence for practicing his faith","type":"news"},{"body":"On February 17, 2021 Vladimir Mikhalyov, judge of the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region, found Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova guilty under part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of a banned organization). She was sentenced to a fine of 10,000 rubles. The prosecutor asked for 4 years of imprisonment.\nThe sentence has not come into force. The believer pleaded not guilty and asked for full acquittal. There were no victims in the case.\nYelena Reyno-Chernyshova is an accountant by profession. She had lost her job at the financial department of the Government of the Jewish Autonomous Region and her position as deputy head of the financial department of the district administration because of her criminal prosecution for her belief in God. Her husband recently suffered a third heart attack. Her elderly mother also has serious heart problems and needs her daughter's care.\nElena has been under house arrest since October 1, 2019. She was one of 21 victims of criminal prosecution for \"extremism\" who were initiated and investigated by FSB investigator D. S. Yankin. A total of 22 Jehovah's Witnesses were prosecuted in Birobidzhan. The persecution of civilians began after a large-scale operation codenamed \"Judgment Day\" with the participation of 150 security officials.\nThe Reyno-Chernyshova case was opened on September 25, 2019. It was separated from the case against Alam Aliyev (currently under house arrest). The investigation lasted 5 months and 7 days. On March 3, 2020, the case went to court.\nThere have already been 8 convictions of peaceful believers who exercised their constitutional right to freedom of religion in the Jewish Autonomous Region. Among them are Yevgeny Golik, Anastasia Sycheva, Arthur Lokhvitsky and others.\nYelena Reyno-Chernyshova personally sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin, and received an answer. In court, she referred to it, as well as to an annual press conference held in December 2020, where the president said that \"there was no repression on religious grounds in Russia...there was no selective persecution for any particular religion.\"\nRussian human rights activists, as well as the international community, consider the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to be inappropriate.\nFor example, Vladimir Ryakhovsky, a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, says that the persecution of Witnesses in Russia has far-reaching consequences: \"It always started with Jehovah's Witnesses and then reflected on everyone.\"\n","category":"verdict","date":"2021-02-17T14:33:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/02/11/image_hu_6f1367154d0cd1e9.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/02/11/image_hu_67b10a9631dc5fbc.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/02/11/image_hu_383aeabd81aa285a.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/02/11/image_hu_ad07d8bb5cd07106.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/02/11.html","regions":["jewish"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["sentence","fine","work-restrictions","recognizance-agreement","282.2-2"],"title":"Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova of Birobidzhan was ordered to pay a fine. This is an eighth conviction for practicing one's faith in the Jewish Autonomous Region","type":"news"},{"body":"An appeal hearing is underway to transfer the case from the Oktyabrsky District Court to the Solombalsky District Court of territorial jurisdiction. Eugene Yakku declares that he refuses the services of a lawyer at this stage due to his financial situation. \"Thanks to the persecution of the Investigative Committee, I was left without a job, all accounts were blocked, cars were arrested,\" the defendant explains. The court appoints a lawyer to participate in the hearing with the subsequent recovery of costs from the federal budget. Judge Natalia Maksimova grants Yakku's request to include the decision of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Human Rights Council in the case file.\nEugene Yakku expresses the opinion that the judge of the Oktyabrsky Court redirects the case to another court, fearing to take responsibility for making a decision on a case of serious international importance.\nThe defendant's lawyer believes that \"the decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court to change the territorial jurisdiction is illegal and unreasonable.\"\nThe appellate court decides to uphold the decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court to transfer the criminal case to the Solombalsky District Court.\n","caseTitle":"Case of Yakku in Arkhangelsk","date":"2020-06-16T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/arkhangelsk2/index.html#20200616","regions":["arkhangelsk"],"tags":["appeal","work-restrictions"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On September 20, 2019, 44-year-old Dmitry Ravnushkin was detained at his workplace in Petrozavodsk. The believer was taken for interrogation, which lasted about 4 hours, after which he was released on his own recognizance. Three days later, Dmitry Ravnushkin was fired from his job, the authorities explained: \"We don't need problems.\"\nThe extremism case (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) against Ravnushkin is being investigated by S. Grigoriev, senior investigator of the Karelian FSB, who also oversees the criminal prosecution of other Petrozavodsk believers, in particular, Maxim Amosov and Mikhail Gordeev, who was also taken away for interrogation directly from work. The charges in the case include language such as \"organizing meetings\" of Jehovah's Witnesses and \"propaganda activities.\"\nThe criminal case and the sudden loss of his job jeopardize not only Dmitry Ravnushkin, but also his family. Groundless persecution for their faith also affected other civilians in Karelia: on July 31, 2019, the FSB conducted at least 17 searches in the homes and workplaces of citizens believed to be Jehovah's Witnesses in the cities of Petrozavodsk and Kondopoga.\n","category":"trial","date":"2019-09-29T00:04:15+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/09/1175/33742771952_dc3a2bc6f6_o_hu_44d3d54e9bc94794.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/09/1175/33742771952_dc3a2bc6f6_o.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/09/1175/33742771952_dc3a2bc6f6_o_hu_c87d0a7e3ed72ce4.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/09/1175/33742771952_dc3a2bc6f6_o_hu_5c24a650eadd473.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/09/1175.html","regions":["karelia"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["interrogation","recognizance-agreement","work-restrictions","282.2-1"],"title":"Another resident of Petrozavodsk was accused of extremism and lost his job due to persecution for his faith  ","type":"news"},{"body":"On August 14, 2019, Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC), met in Surgut (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area) with local Jehovah's Witnesses, who officially announced the torture inflicted on them on February 15, 2019 by employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. The meeting was held in the conference hall of the Central City Library named after A. Pushkin. In addition to human rights defenders, it was attended by the head of the Investigative Committee in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the first deputy prosecutor of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the deputy governor of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the mayor of Surgut. The heads of law enforcement agencies were unable to explain why, despite strong evidence, a criminal case on the fact of torture has not yet been opened. On the part of the believers, there were 28 people – victims, as well as members of their families, who helped them cope with the psychological consequences of their experiences. In addition, the believers told what pressure they were subjected to from law enforcement officers: mothers were intimidated by the weaning of children, wives by the fact that they would not see their husbands, husbands by the fact that their wives would be put in cells and raped, etc. After the initiation of a criminal case, they cannot live normally: someone is asked to quit their jobs; someone is afraid to let children go outside; someone shrinks with fear when he sees police officers; someone cannot sleep in constant anticipation of the next morning search; The children ask their parents if the soldiers will come to them again. (The latter applies equally to hundreds of believers and their families across the country.) Believers also had the opportunity to talk about the nature of their religious beliefs with a Bible in their hands. Natalia Fedina, the wife of one of the accused, expressed a general idea: \"A paradoxical situation: on the one hand, my husband was put in a pre-trial detention center, a criminal case was opened against 19 people, but there is not a single victim; On the other hand, there are 7 people who were tortured here, and there is not a single criminal case!\" After the meeting, Mikhail Fedotov said: \"My conclusion: we must get to the bottom of the truth. I am far from agreeing in advance with any side of this story, but what is clear is that torture is absolutely unacceptable, and allegations of torture must be verified as fully, comprehensively and exhaustively as possible. We cannot allow such evil to exist in our land. The President has a very negative attitude towards the facts of torture. We remember his words that this is an absolutely unacceptable practice.\" ","category":"rights","date":"2019-08-15T14:18:03+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/08/1070/fedotov_0_hu_faeed2423715383d.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/08/1070/fedotov_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/08/1070/fedotov_0_hu_ea26babec834b60e.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/08/1070/fedotov_0_hu_9d31519611109e79.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/08/1070.html","regions":["khanty-mansi"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["torture","presidential-council","health-risk","work-restrictions","minors"],"title":"\"We have to get to the bottom of the truth.\" In Surgut, the head of the Human Rights Council interviewed believers who were tortured ","type":"news"},{"body":"FSB officer Pavel Azarenkov continued to testify. He explained that the Oryol Regional Court and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not ban the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, and in Oryol it is allowed to read the Bible, pray and spread their religious beliefs together with others, including on the street.\nChristensen's fellow believer was questioned at the hearing. The judge was keen to know how her religion differed from Orthodoxy. The witness said that after the visit of FSB officers to her work in kindergarten No. 11 in Orel, she was forced to resign. The security forces explained to the head of the institution that Jehovah's Witnesses \"do not have the right to work in kindergartens.\" The court stopped the lawyers' attempt to find out the names of the operatives from the witness.\n","caseTitle":"Case of Christensen in Oryol","date":"2018-05-15T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/oryol/index.html#20180515","regions":["oryol"],"tags":["first-instance","work-restrictions"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On October 9, 2017, Jehovah's Witnesses filed a complaint with Tatyana Moskalkova, High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, against the decision of the Russian Supreme Court of April 20, 2017. Believers ask the Ombudsman to exercise the right to appeal against a court decision that has entered into force.\nAmong other things, the attention of the Commissioner for Human Rights is drawn to the massive, growing human rights violations that followed the court's decision. We are talking about a surge of aggression and vandalism against believers, raids by law enforcement officers, surveillance of believers, collection of personal information, including regarding minors, refusals to provide alternative civilian service, discrimination in the workplace, arrests of believers and even imprisonment.\nThe believers hope that after reviewing the case materials, Tatiana Moskalkova will consider it necessary to appeal to the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia with a demand to cancel the unjustified and illegal court decision.\n","category":"rights","date":"2017-10-10T16:49:39+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/10/224/supremecourt-02_2_hu_6f94193f48413aef.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/10/224/supremecourt-02_2.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/10/224/supremecourt-02_2_hu_b4a658cdc4ba2873.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/10/224/supremecourt-02_2_hu_f34d62b92cfde2a.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/10/224.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["vandalism","commissioner-rf","complaints","asc","work-restrictions","minors"],"title":"Jehovah's Witnesses ask the Commissioner for Human Rights to appeal the decision of the Supreme Court","type":"news"},{"body":"The Supreme Court's decision against Jehovah's Witnesses organizations caused a flood of violations of the rights of individual believers, despite the fact that the court did not consider the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, nor did it resolve the issue of the rights of individuals.\nOn April 26, 2017, in Mineralnye Vody (Stavropol Territory), the head of the company's security service suggested that one of Jehovah's Witnesses working at the enterprise resign of his own free will. Otherwise, he was promised to make life unbearable. In an informal conversation, one of the leaders confirmed that this requirement is related to religion.\nOn April 28, 2017, in Krasnodar, two women working in the regional clinical hospital refused the requirement to wear St. George ribbons on their robe. They were summoned to the head, who, referring to the order of the head physician, threatened them with dismissal. The women tried unsuccessfully to explain their decision. Since they refused to sign a letter of resignation of their own free will, they lowered their rate (with loss of pay) and at the same time increased the amount of work by 1.5 times. As they were told, this was done so that they themselves would quit.\nOn May 15, 2017, in the city of Novokubansk (Krasnodar Territory), the director of a preschool institution summoned an employee and demanded that she write a letter of resignation \"of her own free will,\" explaining her demand by the fact that the woman professes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. The believer recalled that in two years she has established herself as a conscientious and responsible employee who gets along with the team and children and to whom there is no complaint from the authorities. Referring to the decision of the Supreme Court, the director said that the woman could no longer work in this institution. The believer experienced a strong emotional shock in connection with the dismissal.\nEarlier it was reported about cases of pressure on workplaces in the Perm Territory, Smolensk region, Tatarstan and Crimea. The Supreme Court decision also increased pressure on children of Jehovah's Witnesses in schools. In one case, a schoolgirl is even threatened with transfer to another form of education.\n","category":"discrimination","date":"2017-06-08T12:27:15+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/06/178/img_81152284_0_hu_6967a1a79700f063.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/06/178/img_81152284_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/06/178/img_81152284_0_hu_b5a5bd499020f8f0.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/06/178/img_81152284_0_hu_510b0944044a11d2.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/06/178.html","regions":["crimea","krasnodar"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["work-restrictions","minors"],"title":"In southern Russia, believers are being forced to resign due to the Supreme Court's decision against Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"The Supreme Court's decision to liquidate the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, which has not even entered into force yet, caused a flood of violations of the rights of individual believers. At the same time, it is believed that the court did not consider the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, nor did it resolve the issue of the rights of individuals. Nevertheless, there are reports from all over the country that the management of institutions, especially budgetary ones, initiates the dismissal of employees professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses.\nOn April 3, 2017, in the village of Ilyinsky (Perm Territory), a believer, an employee of the district administration, was invited to a conversation with her supervisor, during which she was informed that she, as a municipal employee, had no right to profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite the fact that there are no complaints against the woman regarding the performance of official duties, she was threatened with dismissal with the inability to work in the public sector in the future.\nOn May 1, 2017, in Smolensk, a woman who works in a cleaning company serving the Federal State Registration Service received a call from a manager and said that another employee would take her place, and she was fired. When asked about the reason, the manager said that this was an order from the management: at work they knew that she professed the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. As a result, a woman raising a child alone was left without a job.\nOn May 4, 2017, in Yelabuga (Tatarstan), a believer who works for a large energy company was summoned to the police. The woman was stunned to learn that she had received a denunciation in which, with reference to her religion, she was baselessly attributed the intention to use her official position to \"carry out terrorist attacks\". As a result, the company's security officers demanded that the believer either renounce her religious beliefs or resign.\nOn May 10, 2017, in the city of Bakhchisarai (Crimea), a woman, an employee of Rospotrebnadzor, was summoned to the prosecutor's office in connection with her religion. The woman refused to give the names of her fellow believers, as a result, she was threatened with dismissal.\nOn May 16, 2017, it became known that in the Smolensk region, a large city-forming enterprise, at the direction of the FSB, intends to dismiss all Jehovah's Witnesses working on it. Believers are offered to leave \"of their own free will\", otherwise they are threatened with dismissal under the article. In a conversation with one of the believers, the factory management reported that two FSB officers came to them, who told their superiors that \"extremists\" could not work at the plant, despite the fact that these employees were very valuable. The believer refused to be dismissed of his own free will.\nThe Supreme Court's decision also sparked a wave of vandalism against citizens who practice the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. The incidents occurred in St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Penza, Rostov, Sverdlovsk, Tula regions, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Komi and Udmurtia.\n","category":"discrimination","date":"2017-06-05T10:49:12+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/06/175/img_81152284_hu_6967a1a79700f063.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/06/175/img_81152284.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/06/175/img_81152284_hu_b5a5bd499020f8f0.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/06/175/img_81152284_hu_510b0944044a11d2.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/06/175.html","regions":["perm","smolensk","tatarstan","crimea"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Believers Forced to Quit Their Businesses in Connection with the Supreme Court Decision Against Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"In July 2020, the life of Andrey Ledyaykin, a peaceful believer from Seversk, changed dramatically: his house was searched, and later he became a defendant in a criminal case.\nAndrey was born in September 1988 in the city of Seversk (Tomsk Region). He has an older brother. As a child, Andrey studied in several sections at once: shooting, wrestling and table tennis.\nIn 2010, Andrey graduated from the National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI) with a degree in Applied Informatics in Economics. After graduating from university, he worked as a driver for several months, and in 2011 got a job as an accountant in a construction company. In his free time he likes to ski and ice skate, swim, as well as walk in nature, pick mushrooms.\nBy the time Andrey first met Jehovah's Witnesses, he had accumulated many questions that had arisen over the years. Having grieved the loss of his beloved grandfather, Andrey longed to find out: what happens after death? Does God Really Torment People in Hell? Who really is God and who was Jesus Christ? These and other questions haunted Andrey. After learning the answers from the Bible, he was so amazed that he decided to devote his life to serving God.\nAndrey, who lives with his mother, shares that the criminal prosecution turned their measured life into a real nightmare. Now, every time they ring the intercom or knock on the door, they shudder, and when they see police cars in the yard, they immediately think if they have come to them to search them again. Andrey also notes that the persecution for believing in God wore him out both physically and emotionally. Nervous stress caused his health to deteriorate: he started having headaches, pressure surges, and disturbed sleep.\nIn addition, due to criminal prosecution, Andrey lost his job at the mayor's office of the city of Seversk. On July 14, 2020, officers of the FSB and the Investigative Committee, accompanied by 2 riot policemen, arrived directly at his workplace, from where he was taken for a search, which lasted a total of 12 hours. After it became known about the initiation of a criminal case, the believer was summoned for a conversation with the Seversk Administration and subsequently dismissed. Andrey is in a difficult position, as it is very hard to find another job in a small closed town.\n","date":"2021-05-25","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/ledyaykin/photo_hu_3ff2c485d76a55b.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/ledyaykin/photo_hu_169a3fa612c53345.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/ledyaykin/photo_hu_81a582767c79dbb8.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/ledyaykin/photo_hu_113d1702c7284268.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/ledyaykin.html","regions":["tomsk"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Andrey Ledyaykin","type":"prisoners"},{"body":"Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor Aleksey Miretskiy is one of six Saratov residents who served a prison sentence for their faith in a colony. On August 3, 2021, he left the place of detention.\nAleksey was born in 1975 in Pskov. He has an elder sister. Their father was an airborne colonel, and their mother worked as an accountant. In connection with the military service of his father, the family often changed their place of residence: Pskov, Vitebsk, Minsk (Belarus), Kalvaria (Lithuania). Since 1993, Aleksey has been living permanently in Saratov.\nAs a child, Aleksey had many hobbies: running, wrestling, boxing, dancing, table tennis, collecting stamps and coins, photography, theater. He also wrote poetry. Aleksey graduated from school with a gold medal.\nAfter graduating from the University of Economics with honors in 1997, Aleksey received a specialty in banking, and taught banking at the university for several years. At the same time, he worked in a bank in the field of marketing and personnel, and later in a large retail network. In total, he worked in the banking sector for 13 years.\nIn the early 1990s, Aleksey\u0026#39;s fiancee introduced him to Bible teachings. Both of them were still students. Aleksey\u0026#39;s heart was touched by high moral standards and biblical principles regarding family life. \u0026quot;Unlike young people at the university, Christian youth lived according to the moral standards that were instilled in me from childhood and which most people rejected with the collapse of the USSR. Unlike the confusing human philosophies I studied at university, biblical truth is very simple and beautiful,\u0026quot; he says.\nAleksey had to quit his job under pressure from his superiors, who feared threats from the FSB because of the employee\u0026#39;s religious views. Having turned out to be a defendant in a criminal case for his faith, Aleksey could not find a job for several months, despite his rich knowledge and experience. Wherever he worked, he received gratitude for his conscientious and hard work. A lie detector test was carried out at the bank, and the conclusion was written: \u0026quot;pathologically honest.\u0026quot;\nAleksey\u0026#39;s wife Yuliya also graduated from the University of Economics. They got married in 1996. Yuliya devoted most of her life to raising her daughter and taking care of her family. The spouses take care of the personal plot and often relax on it with friends. Aleksey reads a lot, loves to walk in nature, ride a horse, pick mushrooms, ski, play educational games with family and friends of different ages. Aleksey\u0026#39;s family traveled a lot until he ended up under recognizance not to leave, and then behind bars because of his religion.\nThe couple raised their daughter Mariya, who graduated with honors from high school and the College of Culinary Arts. Mariya is a florist by profession, knows three languages, writes poetry and stories, and is engaged in painting. Her photo is posted on the district honor board. Mariya lives separately from her parents. \u0026quot;My daughter and I have always spent a lot of time together and are very attached to each other,\u0026quot; says Aleksey. \u0026quot;The search and recognizance not to leave made it impossible for me to see my daughter, to whom I was planning to fly to visit.\u0026quot;\nAleksey\u0026#39;s colleagues were shocked by his criminal prosecution due to charges of extremism. The company\u0026#39;s management was unhappy with the loss of a valuable employee. Aleksey\u0026#39;s mother, who does not share his religious views, sent the question to the direct line of the President of the Russian Federation about what exactly is the \u0026quot;extremism\u0026quot; of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses.\nDespite the absurdity of the charges, in September 2019, Aleksey was sent to a colony for 2 years. In his final statement, he stressed: \u0026quot;I am happy that I have been given the opportunity to speak out in my defense, as well as in defense in our country of freedom of religion in general and freedom to worship Jehovah God in particular.\u0026quot;\n","date":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/miretskiy/photo_hu_e4be3b376b051d16.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/miretskiy/photo_hu_1b407759d10827f6.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/miretskiy/photo_hu_d0b76dd1525be436.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/miretskiy/photo_hu_4e2da0fe269137cd.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/miretskiy.html","regions":["saratov"],"tags":["work-restrictions"],"title":"Aleksey Miretskiy","type":"prisoners"}]