On 25 October, 46-year-old Jehovah’s Witness Roman Mareev was launched after having served his jail time period however many others are nonetheless behind barbed wires: 147 in accordance with the database of non secular prisoners of Human Rights With out Frontiers in Brussels.
In Russia, to be a Jehovah’s Witness is a worse crime than to kidnap or to rape. Compared
- In accordance with Article 111 Half 1 of the Russian Federation’s Prison Code, grievous bodily hurt attracts a most of 8 years sentence.
- In accordance with Article 126 Half 1 of the Prison Code, kidnapping results in as much as 5 years in jail.
- In accordance with Article 131 Half 1 of the Prison Code, rape is punishable with 3 to six years in jail.
Anatoliy Marunov and Sergei Tolokonnikov sentenced to six ½ years and 5.2 years
In July 2023, the Savelovsky District Courtroom of Moscow sentenced Mareev to 4.5 years in a basic regime colony. He was discovered responsible of involvement within the actions of a banned group (p. 1.1 Artwork. 282.2 of the Prison Code).
Mareev was arrested in October 2021. He spent somewhat greater than three years, or 1100 days, in three Moscow detention facilities. Since someday in custody is equal to at least one and a half days in a basic regime colony, Mareev’s time period was thought-about served.
For a while the believer didn’t have his personal mattress within the cell and he slept on the ground. Mareev stated that within the detention heart he was supported by letters from household, buddies and strangers. In three years, he obtained letters from 68 international locations.
Two different believers who had been convicted along with Mareev stay in jail – Anatoliy Marunov and Sergei Tolokonnikov. The primary one was sentenced to 6 and a half years in a basic regime colony, and the second to 5 years. Within the enchantment, Tolokonnikov’s time period was elevated to 5 years and two months.
They didn’t plead responsible, and one of many legal professionals emphasised that they had been persecuted just for their faith.
The same old expenses for Jehovah’s Witnessesr are the unfold of their spiritual beliefs and participation in spiritual providers.
A local Muscovite Sergey Tolokonnikov labored for a few years as a safety guard. After changing into a Jehovah’s Witness, he refused to hold weapons and to use violence towards others. Regardless of this, in October 2021, the authorities thought-about him a harmful legal, charging him underneath two extremist articles for his religion.
Anatoliy Marunov labored for nearly 40 years within the publishing home and printing home of the “Krasnaya Zvezda” newspaper, which for a very long time was the central printed organ of the USSR and Russian Federation Ministry of Protection. He joined the motion of Jehovah’s Witnesses on the finish of the Nineties.
Jehovah’s Witnesses banned since 2017
In 2017, the Supreme Courtroom acknowledged the “Jehovah’s Witnesses Administration Middle in Russia” as an “extremist group”, liquidated it and banned its actions on the territory of Russia. All Jehovah’s Witnesses organizations had been included within the banned listing, after which the stream of legal instances towards believers started.
Rosfinmonitoring included a whole lot of Russian followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses within the listing of “extremists and terrorists”. The general public on the listing are believers aged 40 to 60.
On 7 June 2022, the European Courtroom of Human Rights declared the ban of Jehovah’s Witnesses organizations and the following persecution of believers unlawful.
From the viewpoint of the ECHR, the choice to liquidate the group and legal instances towards Jehovah’s Witnesses is predicated on too broad a definition of “extremism”, which in Russian laws “may be utilized to utterly peaceable types of expression”.
