The Foreign Ministry said that there is no religious persecution in Russia. Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to be tried

According to Memorial, as of November 30, 2021, there are 35 members of this religious organization in Russia. sentenced to the actual terms of imprisonment, and 49 are held in a pre-trial detention center. Another 16 believers have already served their sentences, and two of them have been stripped of their Russian citizenship and deported. Only one believer was acquitted by the court.

In October 2021, three Jehovah’s Witnesses in Astrakhan sentenced to 8 years in prison for “organizing the activities of an extremist organization” (Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In the same month, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation clarified: participation in religious ceremonies alone cannot be regarded as extremism; actions that are not related to the continuation or resumption of the activities of an organization recognized by the court as extremist, and “consisting solely in the exercise of their right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion <...> do not constitute a crime.” After that, in the Pskov region there was canceled a sentence to one of the members of the organization, and in Vladivostok the court justified in the absence of corpus delicti of the defendant, whom the prosecutor demanded to be sentenced to 9 years in prison. But Jehovah’s Witnesses remain on the list of banned extremist organizations, and 49 persons under investigation are still in custody. Lawyer Anastasia Burakova at Kommersant so appreciated situation:

“Previously, joint services were considered extremist, but the plenum unequivocally acknowledged that they were not participation in the extremist community. With regard to prayers, it is worth waiting for the cessation of criminal cases, but missionary activity will continue to be prosecuted. If new cases of this type appear, then they have much more chances of appeal to a higher instance. Perhaps in the future they will try to ascribe something else to the worshipers: for example, send in special people who will later testify that they were involved in the organization. “

According to OVD-info, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been detained more than once in different regions of Russia. beat and subjected to torture, including electric shock. In October 2021, in Irkutsk, one of the detainees was raped with a glass bottle.