A believer from a Kuban village was convicted despite her defense's arguments.

Hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses* in Russia, in Including in the south of the country, Jehovah's Witnesses have felt the consequences of the Supreme Court's decision to ban their organizations, facing criminal prosecution. More than a hundred believers have already received prison sentences. Investigators accuse Jehovah's Witnesses* of attempting to continue the activities of an organization banned by the court, while the believers themselves consider their actions an exercise of their constitutional right to practice religion.

Elena Gadrshina, born May 6, 1958, worked for many years as an accountant and was among the believers whose homes were searched in February 2022. She has been married for 45 years, and her husband works as a driver. He does not share his wife's religious views, but "the couple has a good relationship," the publication states.

According to the indictment, the woman "participated in a discussion of the content of religious books." In court, the defense attorneys repeatedly alleged serious violations committed by the Gadrshina investigation. Specifically, the transcript of the secret witness's interrogation was identical, down to the errors, to a document from another case. Furthermore, one of the experts, a psychologist, admitted she was unsure of the authenticity of her signature on the report, in which the defense discovered 155 errors in citing sources. A linguistic expert also cited nonexistent transcripts.

The Gadrshina hearing was postponed more than 30 times

Elena Gadrshina was under travel restrictions during the investigation. She was one of seven women convicted as a result of the persecution of believers in Vyselki. Gadrshina's charges are based on the testimony of a secret witness who secretly videotaped Jehovah's Witnesses* services. His testimony appears in six other similar cases, the publication notes.

The report also includes the court case number. According to the case file on the district court's website, Judge Ruslan Teplukhin issued a verdict in the case with this number on November 19. The names of the defendant (charged under Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code) and her defense attorney are concealed in the case file. The case was received by the court on December 29, 2023, and a hearing was scheduled for January 18, 2024.

Since then, according to the case file, the hearing has been postponed 33 times for various reasons. The only hearing that wasn't adjourned took place on November 19, where the verdict was handed down.

Vyselki Believers Are Sentenced Despite Prosecution Witness Testimony

As a reminder, in October, the court also sentenced 53-year-old Jehovah's Witness* from the village of Vyselki, Elena Rumyantseva, to two years' probation, deeming her a member of an extremist organization. Rumyantseva denied the charges. "My faith is based on love. It teaches me to be honest, kind, and respectful of every person. It has nothing to do with extremism," she stated.

The criminal case against Elena Rumyantseva and her daughter, Vasilina Penskaya, was also based on the testimony of a secret witness who made audio and video recordings of religious services. Several believers are implicated in his testimony. However, in court, he stated that he did not know Penskaya and could not confirm that she had participated in the services. He also provided no specific information about Rumyantseva, other than that she had attended the services. The court sentenced 27-year-old Vasilina Penskaya to a two-year suspended sentence.

Back in October 2021, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that individual or collective religious practice, religious rites, and ceremonies in themselves should not be considered the activities of an extremist organization unless they contain elements of extremism. However, in practice, state prosecutors ignore this decision, noted Yaroslav Sivulsky, a lawyer for believers in Neftekumsk and a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Earlier, in October 2020, a court in Kabardino-Balkaria acquitted local Jehovah's Witness* Yuri Zalipaev, who was accused of inciting extremism. In September 2021, the court awarded him 500,000 rubles in compensation, and the prosecutor apologized to the believer for the criminal prosecution. Acquittals for Jehovah's Witnesses* are rare in the Russian judicial system, Yaroslav Sivulsky commented on the court's decision at the time.

On April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia, following a lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice, declared the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia* and its 395 branches extremist organizations, banning their activities. The "Caucasian Knot" covers the consequences of this ban on its thematic page "Ministry of Justice vs. Jehovah's Witnesses*".

* 396 Russian Jehovah's Witness organizations have been designated as extremist, and their activities in Russia have been banned by court order.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.