An elderly Jehovah’s Witness in a pretrial detention center has died in Kuban — he was denied medical care for almost a year

On March 20, 2025, 67-year-old retired police officer and Jehovah's Witness Valery Bailo died. This happened in a hospital in Novorossiysk, where he was hospitalized from a pretrial detention center. There, Valery waited for the...

Six Years in Penal Colony for Faith. Court Sentences Engineer From Kaltan, 57

On March 6, 2025, the judge of the Kaltan District Court of the Kemerovo Region, Aleksey Semerikov, sentenced Aleksandr Tsikunov to 6 years in a penal colony. The believer was taken into custody in the...

Two Elderly Women From Khabarovsk Received Suspended Sentences. The Court Considered Talking About the Bible to Be Extremism

The Khabarovsk District Court completed the retrial of the criminal case of two Jehovah's Witnesses on January 20, 2025. Judge Kira Kirina sentenced pensioners Lyubov Kocherova, 66, and Lyubov Ovchinnikova, 66, to 5 years and...

Statistics about the harsh repression of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia in 2024

From the point of view of the Russian judicial system, Jehovah’s Witnesses are more dangerous than any other religious group. Over 140 prisoners and record sentences of over 8 years. [caption id="attachment_9794" align="aligncenter" width="1392"] Jehovah’s...

Court in Izhevsk Sentences Two Men to Long Suspended Terms for Practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses Religion

On October 25, 2024, Judge Oksana Nazarova of the Pervomaisky District Court of Izhevsk sentenced Yevgeniy Stefanidin and Aleksandr Votyakov to six and six and a half years suspended, respectively. The court considered reading the...

A Court in Yaroslavl Fined a Believer 75,000 Rubles for Practicing the Religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses

On September 23, 2024, the judge of the Dzerzhinsky District Court of Yaroslavl, Marina Chipilenko, convicted Anton Kokovin, 34, and fined him for participating in the activities of an extremist organization. The decision has not...

New Searches Against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Samara. Believer, 52, was Placed in Pre-trial Detention Center

On September 16, 2024, in Samara, law enforcement officers detained Samvel Babayan, who professes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite the poor health of the believer, the court sent him to a pre-trial detention center....

Dmitriy Terebilov Served His Sentence for Faith, but Was Not Released — the Court in the Second Case Placed the Believer under Arrest

Dmitriy Terebilov, whose sentence for his faith expired on September 5, remains behind bars. Back on August 26, the Sverdlovsk District Court of Kostroma ruled to place Terebilov in a pre-trial detention center in the second case - for...

The ECHR Recognized the Violation of the Rights of 16 More of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Russia

On July 18, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights granted nine complaints by Jehovah's Witnesses from Russia at once, who were subjected to illegal searches, arrests, and convictions for their religion. The Russian Federation...

In Primorye, Three Jehovah’s Witnesses Received From Three to Six and a Half Years in Prison for Their Beliefs

Natalia Sharapova, 51, labor veteran Boris Andreyev, 72, and Anatoliy Li, 39, received three, six and six and a half years in prison, respectively — on June 10, 2024, Tatyana Pogorelaya, judge of the Khorolsky...