A Birobidzhan court handed a sentence for believing in God. Artur Lokhvitskiy received a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence

On February 2, 2021, Olga Klyuchikova, judge of the Birobidzhan district court of the Jewish Autonomous Region, sentenced 35-year-old Artur Lokhvitskiy to 2 years and 6 months in prison conditionally with a 3-year probation period and the obligation to report to the police once a month. The sentence has not come into force.

The verdict was handed down under Article 282.2 (2) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The judge considered the discussion of the Bible among fellow believers to be participation in the activities of an extremist organization. The state prosecutor N. Breycher demanded four years in a penal colony and one year of additional restrictions for a peaceful believer. At the same time, there is not a single victim in the case. The defendant does not plead guilty and notes that even the prosecution did not prove the existence of a crime.

"In my opinion, the entire judicial investigation proved that the worship meetings that I am charged with are exclusively peaceful, lawful, non-threatening religious activities that were not prohibited by any court. Therefore, there was no crime," said Artur Lokhvitskiy, speaking in court with his last word.

Since the spring of 2017, believers' phones have been tapped and there has been hidden video recording of their worship meetings. In May 2018, in the city of Birobidzhan, an FSB special operation with the participation of 150 law enforcement officers, code-named "Judgment Day," took place against local Jehovah's Witnesses. As a result, 19 criminal cases were initiated against 22 believers.

The case against Artur Lokhvitskiywas initiated on July 31, 2019. It was investigated by the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Jewish Autonomous Region. The investigation lasted five months. The accusation brought against the believer was based on secretly made video recordings of worship services, where moral and spiritual topics were discussed. On December 24, 2019, the case went to trial. Hearings had been going on for more than a year. The conviction of Artur Lokhvitskiy was the 3rd conviction of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Jewish Autonomous Region.

Artur Lokhvitskiy is an electrician by profession and works in the fire department. He spent about a year and a half under house arrest. Arthur was followed by his wife, Anna, and mother, Irina. His wife, Anna, suffered serious emotional trauma as a result of the criminal prosecution and had to undergo expensive medical treatment.

Artur Lokhvitskiy became the 62nd believer in Russia to be convicted after the Russian Supreme Court liquidated the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local religious organizations.

Russian and foreign figures and organizations unanimously condemn the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. These include the RF Commissioner for Human Rights, the RF Presidential Human Rights Council, the RF President, prominent Russian public figures, the European Union External Action Service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that decisions of Russian courts to liquidate and ban Jehovah's Witnesses organizations "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses and do not contain restrictions or bans on the individual practice of the above-mentioned doctrine.