On the evening of March 17, 2016, the Rostov Regional Court essentially upheld the conviction of 16 Taganrog Jehovah's Witnesses. All sixteen believers were sentenced to heavy fines, and four were sentenced to more than 5 years of suspended imprisonment.
The defendants, as well as their fellow believers across Russia, are shocked by the blatantly unjust verdict. The court considered the usual peaceful religious activities of Taganrog residents to be a crime. The reason is that in 2009 the court liquidated a legal entity - the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses "Taganrog" (the decision was appealed to the European Court of Human Rights). The lawyers drew the court's attention to Russian legislation, according to which the liquidation of a legal entity does not deprive individual believers of the right to freedom of religion.
"During the appeal hearing, it became clear that judges Shelekhov, Malysheva and Kuznetsov were not ready to defend believers from a fictitious accusation," says lawyer Anton Omelchenko.- When we reviewed the meager arguments of the prosecution, I asked the collegium, if the verdict was guilty, to honestly reflect in it that believers were sentenced only for reading aloud a passage from a psalm, or from the Gospel of John. or from the Acts of the Apostles."
"This is the first time in modern Russia that people have been criminally punished just for their faith," said Yaroslav Sivulsky of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, "The decision of the Rostov Regional Court discredits Russian justice, returning Russian reality to the sad times of religious repression."
"Our dear fellow believers, men and women, young and old, peaceful and law-abiding people, were considered extremists, dangerous criminals. You can't call it anything other than a perversion of justice," says Vasily Kalin of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. As God-fearing Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses do not pose any threat to society. The forces of Russian law enforcement, prosecutors and judges deserve much better use."
The believers intend to seek justice in this case.
