RUSSIA: A Jehovah’s Witness was sentenced to five and a half years in prison
HRWF with OVD.info (14.05.2025) – The District Court of Chelyabinsk sentenced Andrei Shurygin, 49-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, to five and a half years in a colony of general regime, the press services of the regional departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee reported.
The defendant was also banned from leading religious organizations and participating in their activities for five and a half years and was appointed a year of restriction of liberty after his release.
He was found guilty of organizing the activities of an “extremist organization”, Jehovah’s Witnesses banned in 2017, (Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code).
According to the investigation, from 2017 to 2022 he “carried out active preaching activities, encouraged other persons to participate in them and distributed literature and information materials of extremist content”.
A criminal case was opened against the believer in June 2023.
