Three Jehovah’s Witnesses from Moscow were sentenced to long terms

The Savyolovsky District Court of Moscow sentenced three Jehovah’s Witnesses to long terms of imprisonment, finding them guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization and participating in it. This is reported by the human rights project “OVD-Info”.

The court sentenced Anatoly Marunov to 6.5 years of the general regime colony, Sergey Tolokonnikov – 5 years, and Roman Mareev – 4.5 years. It is noted that the believers did not admit guilt.

“Usual actions for every religious person: spreading their religious convictions, participating in religious services become, according to the state prosecution, a crime solely because of the commission of such acts by Jehovah’s Witnesses,” commented the defendant’s lawyer on the verdict.

• In 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” as an extremist organization and banned its activities on the territory of the country. Subsequently, all legal entities of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were included in the list of extremist and prohibited. According to human rights activists, this was done without any evidence that the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses threaten citizens and the security of the Russian state.
• An hour later, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the recognition of witnesses as extremists “bullshit”. He declared that they are “also Christians” and there is no reason to persecute them. Nevertheless, hundreds of criminal cases were initiated against Jehovah’s Witnesses. Dozens of them, often elderly people, were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. At the same time, the Russian authorities still claim that there is no one persecuted on religious grounds in the country.