Jehovah's Witness* Irina Gezik achieves cancellation of her conditional sentence

The court in the city of Georgievsk in the Stavropol Territory has cancelled the conditional sentence of Irina Gezik, a Jehovah's Witness*, to which she was sentenced on charges related to an extremism case, and has also expunged her criminal record. This was informed by the human rights project "OVD-Info"**.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 14, 2022, the court found Irina Gezik guilty of inciting participation in and participation in an extremist organization and sentenced her to four years and two months of conditional imprisonment.

According to investigators, Irina and her husband persuaded their children to participate in a religious community. The couple stated that law enforcers had planted some materials on them during a search.

The "Caucasian Knot" has also reported that the Abinsky Court had found Valery Bailo, a Jehovah's Witness*, guilty of taking part in the activities of an extremist organization and sentenced him to 2.5 years of freedom deprivation.

*All the 396 Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.