Russia saved cracking down on Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2022, the group stated, sentencing 45 members of the motion to jail, a 40% enhance over the 32 sentenced in 2021. A complete of 115 Witnesses are in Russian prisons, the very best quantity since a 2017 Supreme Courtroom of Russia resolution that successfully banned the group.
Nineteen of these prisoners are over age 60, with 71-year-old Borid Andreev from Primorye territory the oldest. A disabled Jehovah’s Witness, Andrey Vlasov, acquired a seven-year sentence, regardless of struggling “to handle every day actions with out help,” the group stated.
Police carried out searches of 200 houses of members in 39 Russian localities, the Witnesses reported. Greater than 1,800 residences have been searched previously 5 years, with over 670 Witnesses going through fees or prison investigations.
The trials and imprisonment proceed regardless of a June 7 ruling by the European Courtroom of Human Rights that ordered Russia to finish its ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses, launch all jailed group members and drop additional prosecutions.
The ECHR additionally ordered Russia to pay $67.3 million in damages for seized property and nonpecuniary damages. Russia give up the Council of Europe in March and severed its relationship with the European Conference on Human Rights in September.
Nonetheless, Council of Europe Secretary-Normal Marija Pejcinovic Buric on Dec. 9 wrote to Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov stating Russia “stays beneath a binding worldwide legislation obligation” to implement the ECHR rulings.
Russia stays on the State Division’s record of International locations of Specific Concern partially due to its therapy of the Witnesses.
Different worldwide observers have slammed the Russian assaults on the group.
“Russia is now marking a brand new milestone of shame,” Rachel Denber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division, stated in a press release. “Nobody ought to spend a second being prosecuted, not to mention in jail, for the peaceable expression of their non secular beliefs.”
Members of the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom have famous the state of affairs of the Witnesses in Russia, with commissioner Sharon Kleinbaum saying “there is no such thing as a attainable justification” for his or her imprisonment.
“This yr, Russia has continued its inexplicable and increasing persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses, with extra Witnesses than ever behind bars and going through lengthy jail sentences for the mere apply of their beliefs,” Ms. Kleinbaum stated. “The Russian authorities should finish its apply of falsely labeling non secular teams ‘extremist’ and allow freedom of faith or perception for all.”
Jehovah’s Witness spokesman Jarrod Lopes stated by way of electronic mail, “Russia is misemploying its anti-extremist laws to ban, imprison and at instances beat and torture Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s laborious to imagine this poorly veiled crackdown has continued for over 5 years.”
