Valery and Natalya Kriger outside Birobidzhan District Court

RUSSIA: Two trials, nine long jail terms

Eight of nine Jehovah's Witnesses convicted on extremism-related charges in two trials in Russia's Far East in December 2022 received jail terms of 6 to 7 years. An Amur Region Prosecutor's Office official justified the...

Russians increasingly cracking down on Jehovah’s Witnesses; 115 in prison

Russia kept cracking down on Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2022, the group said, sentencing 45 members of the movement to prison, a 40% increase over the 32 sentenced in 2021. A total of 115 Witnesses are in...

4 Jehovah’s Witnesses sentenced to prison in Russia

MOSCOW (AP) — Officials of the Jehovah’s Witnesses say four Russian members of the religious denomination have been sentenced to prison terms ranging up to seven years. Russia banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 and...

CRIMEA: Two “extremism” criminal trials, more raids, criminal investigations

Russian occupation forces have raided more Jehovah's Witness homes in occupied Crimea. Timed to coincide with the raids, investigators launched criminal cases on "extremism" charges against three Jehovah's Witnesses. One - Sergei Parfenovich – has...

CRIMEA: Three 6-year jail terms, with 7-year post-jail bans

On 6 October, a Sevastopol court in Russian-occupied Crimea jailed three Jehovah's Witnesses for six years each on "extremism" charges, followed by a seven-year ban on specific activities. Prosecutor Valery Yazev, who led the case...

Protect to Russian Orthodox Church is was the main reason used to “liquidate” the Jehovah’s Witnesses

After Russian anti-cultists accused the U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence of infiltrating criminal Satanist “cults” into Russia, and Putin himself described the West as dominated by Satanism, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov has been requested to ban Satanist groups as “extremists”...

RUSSIA: 200 people on criminal trial for exercising freedom of religion or belief

Nearly 200 Jehovah's Witnesses and 9 Muslims who study Said Nursi's writings are on criminal trial for exercising freedom of religion and belief. Since June, courts jailed 17 Jehovah's Witnesses for "organising" or "participating in"...

Seven Jehovah’s Witnesses Handed Prison Terms In Russia

Seven Jehovah's Witnesses have been handed prison terms on extremism charges in Russia's southwestern Rostov region amid an ongoing crackdown on the religious group that has been banned in Russia since 2017. [caption id="attachment_6439" align="aligncenter"...

U.S. Report Says Russia Among ‘Worst Violators’ Of Religious Freedom

An independent, bipartisan advisory body has reiterated its call for the U.S. State Department to add Russia to its register of the world's "worst violators" of religious freedom, a blacklist that already includes Iran, Pakistan,...

RUSSIA: “Retroactively depriving Russian citizens of the right to international protection”

Under June amendments, Russia will not enforce any European Court of Human Rights decision which came into force after 15 March, and will pay outstanding compensation in earlier cases only in Roubles and not to...