From the point of view of the Russian judicial system, Jehovah’s Witnesses are more dangerous than any other religious group. Over 140 prisoners and record sentences of over 8 years.
As of December 16, 2024, since the beginning of the year, Russian security forces have conducted at least 96 searches in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses — 17 in Crimea being the highest number. The total number of raids since the ban in 2017 reached 2157.
During 2024, 41 persons were made defendants in new criminal cases, of which 19 went through various types of detention, 15 of them are still behind bars. Last year, criminal cases were initiated against 100 believers.
Sentences were handed down to 116 believers. 43 of them (37%) were sentenced to imprisonment (It is noteworthy that this year nine people were sent to forced labor as a punishment). Terms of more than five years were given to 24 people (or almost 56% of those sentenced to imprisonment).
Since 2017, 842 people have already been prosecuted; 450 of them have spent at least 1 day in custody. Currently, 147 prisoners of conscience are behind bars, either already convicted or awaiting sentencing. Of the 27 prisoners released from colonies, 8 were released this year. Although they have served their main sentence, most continue to experience numerous difficulties due to additional restrictions imposed by the court, which can last up to eight years or sometimes even more.
“The cumulative numbers and severity of custodial sentences are increasing. To put it simply, during this year they imprisoned less, but more severely,” Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses, commented on the statistics.
In 2024, the court handed down record-breaking sentences against three Jehovah’s Witnesses. Khabarovsk residents Nikolay Polevodov, Vitaliy Zhuk and Stanislav Kim received eight years and six months, eight years and four months, eight years and two months in a penal colony, respectively.
After about three months the court of appeal changed the punishment from imprisonment to a suspended sentence for shorter terms. Therefore, the longest term in 2024 was given to Alexander Chagan from Tolyatti — eight years in a penal colony. All in all, six believers have received such a harsh sentence since 2017.
Over the seven years of mass persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the number of people sentenced has reached 543, and 186 believers have been imprisoned. Almost 61% of them (113 people) received terms of more than five years.
In 13 regions of Russia, the average term of imprisonment is 6 years or more. This is especially true with the southern territories — the Astrakhan, Rostov, Volgograd Regions, Crimea, and Sevastopol.
For comparison: according to the official statistics of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of Russia for 2023, of the 1297 people convicted for intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, only 0.85% (11 people) were sentenced to terms of five to eight years. Most were sentenced to terms of two to three years.
It seems that from the point of view of the Russian judicial system, Jehovah’s Witnesses are more dangerous than those who beat people to the point of disability.
This is confirmed by a recent report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) titled “Religious Freedom Challenges for Jehovah’s Witnesses”:
Sentences for Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to increase in severity. In June 2024, a court in Khabarovsk sentenced Nikolai Polevodov to eight years and six months, Vitaliy Zhuk to eight years and four months, and Stanislav Kim to eight years and two months in prison, surpassing the record length of eight years’ imprisonment for a Jehovah’s Witness.
Other punishments for Jehovah’s Witnesses include fines and compulsory labor. In March 2024, a Teykovo court fined four Jehovah’s Witnesses a collective 3,450,000 rubles ($37,048) for their religious activities. And in January 2024, a court in Tolyatti sentenced Sona Olopova to two years of forced labor for having a religious gathering.”
At the same time, hundreds of trials against Jehovah’s Witnesses accused of extremism have not confirmed a single fact of extremist activity on the part of the believers.
International Support
In the summer 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of 16 Jehovah’s Witnesses who were subjected to illegal searches, arrests, and convictions for their religion in Russia. Although Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights back in 2022, the Russian Federation is still obliged to pay compensation assigned to believers.
On October 24, 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee issued two opinions in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses regarding the rulings to liquidate the local religious organizations (LROs) in Abinsk and Elista. In Russia, these rulings became precedent for the beginning of religious persecution, and a former member of the Abinsk LRO, the elderly Aleksandr Ivshin, is serving time for his faith in a penal colony.
The UN Human Rights Committee emphasizes that there are no calls for violence or other information inciting hatred in the literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In both cases, Russia violated the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and “the right to freedom of assembly” (Articles 18.1 and 22.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights).
The Committee ordered Russia to reconsider the decisions on the ban and ordered it to “take all necessary steps to avoid similar violations in the future.” During 2024, hearings were held in Russia on this issue, but the Committee’s orders were never carried out. Moreover, after the publication of the Opinion of the Human Rights Committee on the liquidation of a religious organization in Abinsk, local security forces initiated a criminal case against Valeriy Baylo, 66 at that time, — for participating in the activity of the Abinsk LRO. The court sentenced the believer to two and a half years in a penal colony. Now he is in custody and is awaiting the decision of the court of appeal.
Noteworthy is that very few media outlets in Europe echo such religious repression and that groups hostile to Jehovah’s Witnesses pretending to defend human rights turn a blind eye to that persecution by Putin’s regime.
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First published in this link of The European Times.
