A court in Cherkessk sentenced a follower of Jehovah's Witnesses with a second-degree disability to 4.5 years in prison for extremism. During the hearing, the defendant lost consciousness due to poor health. Previously, despite his health, he was in custody for almost a year and a half in a pretrial detention center.
According to investigators, the man involved a local resident in extremist activity. As reported by the project "Jehovah's Witnesses. Legal situation in Russia", this concerns conversations on religious topics that the woman recorded on behalf of the FSB. These recordings formed the basis for another charge, for which 58-year-old Elena Menchikova was sentenced to the same term.
In November 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia adopted a ruling according to which Jehovah's Witnesses cannot be prosecuted for peaceful assemblies unless they attempt to resume the activities of an organization recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation.
The Memorial human rights project considers the arrested followers of this religious association to be political prisoners and demands that their persecution be stopped.
