**WITNESSES DIE UNDER INVESTIGATION**
"Novaya Gazeta" reports on the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, whose "crime" is using the "wrong" Bible translation and anticipating the imminent arrival of God's Kingdom on Earth, thus undermining the constitutional order of the Russian Federation. #JehovahsWitnesses #ReligiousPersecution #Russia
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The eighth year of total repression against Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia has begun. The treatment of these "forbidden" believers is harsher than even under Stalin. #Repression #Totalitarianism #ReligiousFreedom
Alexander Lubin from Shadrinsk became the 13th Russian Jehovah's Witness to die during or as a result of preliminary investigation and court hearings related to his affiliation with the "banned" religion. Russian authorities have been systematically persecuting believers of this confession for eight years, but their numbers are not decreasing. Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) were also banned in the Soviet Union, but later recognized as innocent victims of repression. Why do apolitical pacifists irritate totalitarian regimes so much, and why do persecutions against them not achieve their goal? #ReligiousFreedom #SovietUnion #Pacifism
In early October, Judge Natalia Korotneva of the Shadrinsk Court in the Kurgan Region sentenced 68-year-old Jehovah's Witness and second-group disabled person Alexander Lubin to an unbearable fine of half a million rubles. A month later, on November 11, he was in intensive care and passed away. #HumanRights #Justice #Russia
Lubin's case is little different from the hundreds of carbon-copy indictments/convictions of believers from this confession, harshly persecuted after April 20, 2017, when the Supreme Court declared all 396 Jehovah's Witness religious organizations in Russia extremist and liquidated them. Although the court did not assess the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses (see footnote 1) and did not annul Article 28 of the Constitution (see footnote 2), any expression of affiliation with this religion is now treated as a crime by the authorities. #FreedomOfReligion #Constitution #ReligiousPersecution
The Supreme Court's decision was likely based on "unpatriotism." For similar reasons, Stalin persecuted the faith after the war — it remained banned in the USSR until 1991, when those persecuted by the Witnesses were recognized as victims of political repression. The methods used by Russian security forces and the prison terms handed out to Jehovah's Witnesses in Russian courts are, as a rule, tougher and harsher than during the Soviet era. #PoliticalRepression #SovietEra #Justice
**Easy Targets: The Disabled?**
In July 2021, police arrived at the home of the disabled Lubin couple in Shadrinsk. During the search, Alexander's wife, Tatiana, suffered a stroke, losing the use of her legs and tongue. Despite this, Alexander was taken to the Investigative Committee, where he learned that investigator Nikolai Astapov had initiated criminal proceedings against him under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Organization of Activity of an Extremist Organization"). Lubin was sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months, despite his obvious disability: he could barely move. #DisabilityRights #HumanRights #Persecution
In the summer of 2021, European Court of Human Rights intervention helped ease his pre-trial measures, but the 20 days in detention severely worsened his health. #HumanRightsLaw #ECHR
On November 14, a court in Kurgan convicted another disabled Jehovah's Witness, 60-year-old Anatoly Isakov, to a fine of 400,000 rubles under the same article, despite his severe cancer and surgery. The prosecution, as with most cases against Witnesses, was based on the testimony of a secret witness (his name was concealed), who claimed, "Believers discussed the Bible at meetings." #Persecution #SecretWitness #Justice
**Witnesses Report Disabled Believers Arrested in Various Regions:**
- Andrei Vlasov (Kemerovo Region)
- Vladimir Fomin (Karachay-Cherkessia)
- Adam Svarichevsky (Amur Region)
- Vladimir Skachidub (Krasnodar Region)
- Denis Peresunko (Volgograd Region)
An informal record is held by Jehovah's Witness Rimma Vashchenko, born in August 1930. At 88, the Investigative Committee in Nevinnomyssk opened a criminal case against her under Article 282.2, and she was immediately added to the list of extremists and terrorists by Rosfinmonitoring. Suffering from a severe brain disease, she passed away at 90 while under investigation. The case partially collapsed — only Sergey Kuznetsov (who had a vision and hearing disability and was identified by the investigator as the leader) and 76-year-old Georgiy Parfentyev, who passed away shortly after the verdict, reached trial. Both were sentenced to suspended sentences. #Extremism #JusticeDelayed #Russia
**Death Under Investigation or Immediately After Sentence — Not the Most Shocking Event**
The case of deceased 1956-born Yuri Geraskov, whose trial was conducted by Kirov City Court Judge Timur Yusupov, is not exceptional. He died from advanced cancer just one week before the start of the trial in April 2020, but the investigator did not terminate the case. #JusticeDenied #Cancer #Investigation
During mass arrests in Kirov in October 2018, Vladimir Korobeynikov's elderly bedridden relative found herself in a dramatic situation. Her phone was seized, and when she tried to contact friends, it turned out they had all been arrested. #MassArrests #ElderlyRights #Justice
**Harsh Constitutional Order**
According to Jehovah's Witnesses' estimates, nearly 10,000 of their co-believers left Russia since April 2017. Most of these are young, successful individuals. The repression machine now grinds the lives of the elderly who remember the repressions of Soviet times. #Exile #HumanRights #Oppression
Article 282 of the Criminal Code of Russia falls under the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee, but the FSB plays a more active role in the processes against Jehovah's Witnesses, with support from the Rosgvardiya, OMON, FSIN, and the Prosecutor's Office. Courts in different regions follow the same scheme in these cases: leaders or activists are sentenced to 5-7 years, those who preached are given the same sentences conditionally, and others receive fines that equal several years' worth of the average Russian pension. #Repression #Persecution #RuleOfLaw
In May 2022, the Central District Court of Prokopyevsk (Kemerovo Region) found 54-year-old second-group disabled person Andrei Vlasov guilty of organizing an extremist community, sentencing him to seven years in prison. The believer participated in JW meetings via video call, which the investigation and court saw as "undermining the constitutional order." #Extremism #FreedomOfSpeech #Justice
*Follow for updates on this ongoing case* #ReligiousFreedom #HumanRights #JehovahsWitnesses
