{"id":2979,"date":"2019-12-19T14:59:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T14:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2019\/12\/19\/heavy-prison-sentence-against-russian-jehovahs-witness-for-holding-conversations-in-public-places\/"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:25:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T07:25:28","slug":"heavy-prison-sentence-against-russian-jehovahs-witness-for-holding-conversations-in-public-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/heavy-prison-sentence-against-russian-jehovahs-witness-for-holding-conversations-in-public-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy prison sentence against Russian Jehovah\u2019s Witness for \u2018holding conversations in public places\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Russian court\u00a0has sentenced<\/span><\/span>\u00a055-year-old Vladimir Alushkin to six years\u2019 imprisonment for supposed \u2018extremist activities\u2019, namely reading the Bible and practising his faith. The same Leninsky District Court in Penza passed two-year suspended sentences against five other Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses: Vladimir\u2019s wife, Tatyana; Vladimir Kulyasov; Galiya Olkhova: Andrey Magliv, and Denis Timoshin.\u00a0 Since their suspended sentences are conditional on not repeating the absolutely normal activities of believers, such as attending meetings or preaching their faith, it is more than likely that some or all of the five will also end up behind bars.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the third 6-year prison sentence (after those of\u00a0Denis Christensen<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Sergei Klimov<\/span><\/span>) since Russia reinstated the religious persecution of the Soviet regime by banning the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses as a supposedly \u2018extremist\u2019 organization in April 2017.\u00a0 It is the ninth real prison sentence to date, but since there have also been other suspended sentences, that number is likely to rise, including in occupied Crimea where the \u2018trial\u2019 is now underway of 49-year-old Sergei Filatov from Dzhankoy.\u00a0 It is also probably only a question of time before Russia resorts to Soviet and Nazi persecution of young men who cannot, as Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, do military service, but who cannot cite their faith, since this has been\u00a0banned,\u00a0<\/em>as grounds for doing alternative service.\u00a0 It is known that at least one young man in Crimea\u00a0was told<\/span><\/span>\u00a0to renounce his faith or face the conscription which Russia as an occupying state has no right to impose on the peninsula.<\/p>\n

According to Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses sources, Vladimir Alushkin was arrested on 15 July, 2018 after armed and masked officers, led by major\u00a0Alexander Bukov<\/strong>, burst into his home. In the course of a four-hour search, they seized cell phones, electronic devices, Bibles, and other literature. Three other homes were also subjected to searches that day, with around 40 people taken in for questioning.<\/p>\n

Alushtin, who worked in a scientific research institute, was held in SIZO [remand prison] for almost six months before being released under house arrest.\u00a0 Although the sentence on 13 December, passed by judge\u00a0Roman Tanchenko<\/strong>, will certainly be appealed, Alushtin was taken into custody from the courtroom.<\/p>\n

In August 2019, the UN\u2019s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued\u00a0a 12-page opinion<\/span><\/span>\u00a0which condemned Alushkin\u2019s arrest and detention on charges under article 282.2 (1) of the criminal code (organizing the activity of an extremist organization).\u00a0 WGAD wrote that \u201cit was alleged that Mr. Alushkin and individual Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in Penza had committed a criminal offence by practising their faith, which purportedly contravened the liquidation decision. In particular, it was alleged that they had committed a criminal offence \u201cby holding conversations in public places and residential premises with the inhabitants of the city of Penza \u2026 by recruiting new members from among their relatives, friends and residents of the city of Penza\u201d and holding religious services \u201cto study their ideology\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Working Group concluded that \u201cthe deprivation of liberty of Vladimir Alushkin, being in contravention of articles 2, 3, 7, 9 and 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 2, 9, 18 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is arbitrary and falls within categories I, II and V. 70. The Working Group requests the Government of the Russian Federation to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr. Alushkin without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court in Penza, almost certainly obeying orders from other quarters, has ignored the Working Group\u2019s criticism and call for Alushkin\u2019s release, claiming that the 2017 Russian Supreme Court ruling banning the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses takes precedence.<\/p>\n

It does not, but for the moment, Russia\u2019s repressive machine against the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses is seizing more and more prisoners of conscience.<\/p>\n

As well as nine believers sentenced to real terms of imprisonment for their faith, there are also 297 Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses facing criminal charges based on their faith in Russia and occupied Crimea.\u00a0 43 believers are in detention and a further 22 under house arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Russian court\u00a0has sentenced\u00a055-year-old Vladimir Alushkin to six years\u2019 imprisonment for supposed \u2018extremist activities\u2019, namely reading the Bible and practising his faith. The same Leninsky District Court in Penza passed two-year suspended sentences against five…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-news","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5142,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979\/revisions\/5142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}