RUSSIA: Special bimonthly FORB Digest (02-15.09.2020)
15.09.20 – Danish Jehovah’s Witness returned to punishment cell
Link to full text in Russian: www.zaprava.ru/svidetelya-iegovy-dennisa-kristensena-snova-otpravili-v-shizo-2/
The Jehovah’s Witness (organization ruled to be extremist in R.F.) Dennis Christensen, who was convicted of extremism and is serving his punishment in the Lgov correctional penal colony No. 3 (Kursk oblast), was again put into the punishment cell (Shtrafnoi IZOliator—ShIZO).
11.09.20 – In the city of Primorye, the trial of a 72-year-old believer is drawing to a conclusion. Being disabled, she commutes to court hearings using her crutches
Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2020/09/6.html
Lyudmila Shut from Razdolnoye village ( Primorye Territory) is being tried for her faith under the article on participation in the extremist organization’s activities.
10.09.20 – Court recommends excommunication of conservative Orthodox monk
Link to full text in Russian: www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=dujour&div=447
The court of the Ekaterinburg diocese on Thursday adopted the decision to send a recommendation concerning expulsion from the church of schema monk Sergius Romanov, who has been stripped of his clerical status, Archpriest Nikolai Maleta, chairman of the court, told journalists.
10.09.20 – A believer from Beryozovsky, was handed a two and a half year suspended sentence for participating in meetings with fellow believers
Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2020/09/5.html
On September 10, 2020, the Berezovsky City Court of Kemerovo region handed a guilty verdict to Hasan Kogut, a 37-year-old father of a minor child.
09.09.20 – Controversy about takeover of movie house by Siberian protestants
Link to full text in Russian: https://www.kem.kp.ru/daily/author/816428/
On social networks a stormy discussion is under way: what will be in the movie theatre “Sibir”? According to unofficial information, a church will be here.
08.09.20 – Jehovah’s Witness jailed for fear he might mess up investigation
Link to full text in Russian: https://www.zaprava.ru/v-severske-vzyat-pod-strazhu-50-letnij-svidtel-iegovy/
The Seversk city court of Tomsk oblast ordered to take into custody the fifty-year-old Jehovah’s Witness (the organization is considered extremist in the R.F.) Evgeny Korotun. As the website of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia reports, the believer was taken into custody at yesterday’s judicial session.
07.09.20 – Attorneys mobilize to defend rights of religious groups
Link to full text in Russian: http://www.sclj.ru/news/list.php?SECTION_ID=415
In late August 2020, lawyers and experts visited Krasnodar territory, which is the second region within the context of the Svoboda28 project organized by the Slavic Legal Center along with the Institute of the Rule of Law, with informational support of the publication Religiia i Pravo and the SPEKTR News Bureau.
05.09.20 – Prosecutor frustrates hope for freedom for Jehovah’s Witness Dennis Christensen
Link to full text in Russian: https://kursk-izvestia.ru/news/160486/
Materials of the criminal case have been sent for a new review in Lgov district court with a different composition. We recall that earlier the Zheleznodorozhny district court in the city of Orel found Dennis Christensen guilty of arranging the activity of the religious congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (activity forbidden in Russia).
05.09.20 – Court in Kursk leaves Jehovah’s Witness Dennis Christensen in penal colony.
Link to full text in Russian: https://vestivrn.ru/news/2020/09/04/zaderzhannykh-za-ekstremizm-svidetelei-iegovy-ostavili-v-voronezhskom-sizo-do-dekabrya/
The Lenin district court extended the detention of eight Jehovah’s Witnesses by three months; they were arrested in July on suspicion of extremism. Members of the organization, including leaders in the main, will remain in the SIZO [pretrial investigation cell] at least until 3 December. This was explained for a Vesti Voronezh correspondent in the press service of the court.
04.09.20 – Long pretrial detention of Voronezh Jehovah’s Witnesses
Link to full text in Russian: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4481721
The Lenin district court of Voronezh extended the detention of eight local members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (an organization ruled to be extremist in the R.F.). As “De Facto Voronezh” reports, for two believers the measure of restriction was extended until 2 December and for six, until the third.
04.09.20 – Novozybkov Court sentenced 4 Jehovah’s Witnesses to jail, but released them because they have already served their time
Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2020/09/3.html
On September 3, 2020, the Novozybkov City Court sentenced Vladimir Khokhlov and Eduard Zhinzhikov to 1 year and 3 months of imprisonment and 1 year of restraint, and Tatyana Shamsheva and Olga Silaeva to 1 year of imprisonment and 6 months of restraint.
02.09.20 – Two Jehovah’s Witnesses given four years prison time
Link to full text in Russian: https://tayga.info/158978
A court sentenced two Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kuzbass to four years in a prison colony for participation in the activity of an extremist organization. One of the believers is an invalid, second class.