In Kazan, Jehovah’s Witness received six and a half years in prison

In Kazan, the Soviet District Court sentenced Jehovah’s Witness Konstantin Sannikov to six and a half years in a general regime colony. This is reported by Idel.Realii with a link to the portal that covers the persecution of believers.

The court found Sannikov guilty under the criminal articles of organizing the activities of a prohibited organization and financing an extremist organization.

According to the lawyer, several secret witnesses appeared in the case, whose statements did not correspond to reality and indicated a personal dislike for Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is noted that the judge also drew attention to this, who said at one of the hearings that the witness was trying to frame the defendant.

Konstantin Sannikov was detained at the end of August 2020. According to the investigation, the believer held “illegal religious meetings… with the aim of inciting [аудиторию] to the hostile perception of people singled out on the basis of religious affiliation.” In the pre-trial detention center, the man’s chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system and organs of the abdominal cavity worsened. He was also denied dates with his wife for more than a year.

• 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.