In Irkutsk, the prosecutor’s office invited Jehovah’s Witnesses to prison for up to 7 years
[ad_1]
The prosecutor’s office requested three to seven years of actual imprisonment for nine Jehovah’s Witnesses from Irkutsk. This was reported by the editorial office of Sibir.Realii with reference to relatives of one of the suspects, Yaroslav Kalina.
The indictment requests Yaroslav Kalyna, Nikolay Martynov, Aleksey Solnechny and Sergey Kosteev to serve seven years in a general regime colony. Mikhail Moysh and Andrey Tolmachev – six years and eight months of imprisonment each. Ihor Popov and Denys Sarazhakov – six years and four months each. Sergey Vasilyev – three years.
They are charged under articles on organizing and participating in the activities of an extremist organization and financing extremist activities.
The case was opened in October 2021, it was brought to court only in December 2022. All the accused, with the exception of Vasiliev, who is under house arrest, have been held in pre-trial detention centers for more than two years.
When believers were detained in 2021, they were severely beaten, according to relatives, and one of them was threatened with rape.
- In 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the “Management Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” as an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities on the territory of Russia.
- In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights found the ban on the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the subsequent persecution of believers to be illegal.
- Hundreds of church followers were convicted under criminal articles on extremism in Russia, more than a hundred of them were sent to colonies.
[ad_2]
Original Source Link
