The persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses is happening unabated. Within the final six months, 20 of them have been sentenced for practising their faith and are serving their jail time period. Right here is the record:
06 June 2022: Vladimir Ermolaev, 34 years (6 ½ years)
Alexander Putintsev, 48 years (6 ½ years)
Igor Mamalimov, 46 years (6 years in a colony)
31 Could 2002: Rustam Seidkuliev, 45 years outdated (2 years and 4 months)
23 Could 2022: Lyudmila Shchekoldina, 46 years ‘4 years and 1 month)
23 Could 2022: Andrey Vlasov, 53 years outdated (7 years)
23 Could 2022: Lyudmila Shchekoldina, 45 years outdated (4 years and 1 month in a penal colony)
26 April 2022: Andrey Ledyaikin, 34 years outdated (2 years and a pair of months)
19 April 2022: Konstantin Samsonov, 45 years outdated (7 years 1/2 years)
18 March 2022: Valeriy Rogozin, 60 years outdated (6 years and 5 months in a penal colony)
Denis Peresunko, 54 years outdated (6 years and 6 months)
Sergey Melnik, 57 years outdated (6 years in a penal colony)
Igor Egozaryan, 57 years outdated (6 years in a penal colony)
07 February 2022: Yuriy Saveliyev, 68 years outdated (6 years + 1 12 months of restricted freedom)
02 February 2022: Anatoliy Gorbunov, 64 years outdated (6 years)
25 January 2022: Anna Safronova, 57 years outdated (6 years)
20 January 2022: Yevgeny Korotun, 52 years outdated (7 years + 2 years of restricted freedom)
20 January 2022: Andrei Kolesnichenko, 52 years outdated (4 years + 1 12 months of restricted freedom)
19 January 2022: Alexei Ershov, 68 years outdated (3 years)
17 January 2022: Maksim Beltikov, 42 years outdated (2 years)
Vladimir Ermolaev and Alexander Putintsev sentenced to six ½ years, and Igor Mamalimov to six years in a colony
On June 6, 2022, Marina Kuklina, a choose of the Central District Courtroom of Chita, sentenced Vladimir Ermolaev and Alexander Putintsev to six.5 years, and Igor Mamalimov to six years in a colony, they had been taken into custody. Sergei Kirilyuk obtained 6 years probation.
For Mamalimov and Kirilyuk, the prosecutor requested 6 years of suspended sentence, for Vladimir Ermolaev and Aleksandr Putintsev—7 years of actual imprisonment, though there aren’t any victims and proof of crimes in opposition to the state and the person within the case. Believers resolutely deny the guilt of extremism, the decision has not entered into pressure and might be appealed.
The legal case was initiated on January 20, 2020. Six months earlier, the Chita believers seen that they had been being adopted, and whereas enjoyable by the river, they found monitoring units and hidden audio recordings. On February 10, 2020, FSB officers performed 50 searches in Chita and different settlements in Transbaikalia. The safety forces invaded the properties of the aged, the disabled, giant households and different believers. The search in the home of Sergey Kirilyuk happened in entrance of his spouse, who has a gaggle II incapacity, and a minor little one. Throughout the raid, Vadim Kutsenko was strangled and tortured with a stun gun. He, in addition to Vladimir Ermolaev, was detained and positioned in a brief detention facility.
In complete, 8 believers had been suspected of organizing extremist actions, however in January 2021, fees had been dropped in opposition to Vadim Kutsenko, Aleksey Loskutov, Georgiy Senotrusov and Pavel Mamalimov because of the lack of corpus delicti. The Investigative Committee for the Trans-Baikal Territory investigated the case in opposition to Ermolaev, Kirilyuk, Putintsev and Igor Mamalimov for 1 12 months and 1 month. Then it was taken to courtroom.
All 4 defendants had been included within the record of extremists of Rosfinmonitoring, their financial institution accounts had been blocked. This had a very adverse influence on the household of Igor Mamalimov, the daddy of three younger youngsters, who’s the one breadwinner regardless of poor well being. His spouse, Nataliya, doesn’t work on account of childcare. Addressing the courtroom, the believer stated : “In my coronary heart there isn’t any resentment in opposition to anybody who accuses me, and even in my ideas I don’t maintain malice in opposition to them. Deep down, I don’t really feel any hatred.”
Vladimir Ermolaev spent 3 days in a brief detention middle and 50 days beneath home arrest, after which the investigator took a written enterprise to not depart him. Sergey Kirilyuk spent 5 days in a brief detention middle and was additionally launched on bail. In consequence, all 4 believers remained beneath home arrest for about 2.5 years.
That is the primary responsible verdict beneath Article 282.2 of the Legal Code of the Russian Federation issued to Jehovah’s Witnesses within the Trans-Baikal Territory.
Rustam Seidkuliev sentenced to 2 years and 4 months
In Could 2021, the courtroom discovered 45-year outdated Rustam Seidkuliev responsible of collaborating in extremist actions. He was first sentenced to 2 ½ years in jail with restriction of liberty for a interval of 1 12 months. Later, the courtroom of attraction decreased this era by 2 months.
On 31 Could 2022, the First Courtroom of Cassation of Common Jurisdiction in Saratov left the appellate ruling of the Saratov Regional Courtroom unchanged.
He has began serving his sentence in a penal colony of basic regime: Penal Colony No. 33 in Saratov Area.
Seidkuliev was born in 1977 in Ashgabat (former Turkmen SSR). As a toddler, he was engaged in freestyle wrestling, martial arts. He graduated from school and purchased the occupation of a phone grasp.
In 1993, he turned a Jehovah’s Witness.
Rustam’s non secular convictions don’t enable taking on arms, so he refused to do army service. For refusing to affix the military, he was twice convicted (in 1995 and 1996) and spent 1 12 months and eight months in a basic regime colony.
In 2000, the household moved from Turkmenistan to Saratov, as Rustam’s stepfather was deported from the nation due to his faith.
A 12 months after the transfer, Rustam met his future spouse Yuliya, who at the moment had already been a Jehovah’s Witness for 8 years.
Lyudmila Shchekoldina sentenced to 4 years and 1 month
On 23 Could 2022, a courtroom sentenced Lyudmila Shchekoldina to a time period of 4 years 1 month with deprivation of the appropriate to have interaction in actions associated to the group of Jehovah’s Witnesses and participation in public associations.
She is at present held in a correctional colony of basic regime: Detention Middle No. 1 in Krasnodar Territory.
Shchekoldina was born in June 1976 within the village of Alexandrovka (Krasnodar Territory).
On 29 April 2020, on the peak of the pandemic, FSB officers with representatives of the native Cossacks broke into the homes of civilians in two villages of the Krasnodar Territory, performed searches and interrogations. Lyudmila Shchekoldina from the village of Pavlovskaya was suspected by the safety forces of being “an adherent of a banned group.” A legal case was initiated in opposition to her, and a written enterprise to not depart was taken from the believer.
After graduating from the Oryol State College, she obtained the specialty “main college trainer with the appropriate to show Russian language and literature within the center lessons.” As a specialist within the social safety service, in her native village she labored with pensioners, disabled individuals, and orphans. In 2007 she moved to the village of Pavlovskaya. There she labored as a plasterer, a housekeeper, after which as a janitor at a sports activities college.
Supply: http://jw-russia.org
