21:14, 25 January 2024

Court in Cherkessk refuses to sentence Jehovah's Witnesses* to real prison term

Elena Menchikova at the court. Screenshot of the website containing information about criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses* in Russia (Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision)

By the outcomes of cassation and retrial of her case by the first-instance court, Elena Menchikova, a Jehovah's Witness* from the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), was sentenced to 4.5 years of (conditional imprisonment (probation), contrary to the prosecutor's demand for five years of real imprisonment.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in her last plea, Elena rejected the accusations of extremism and called on the court to be impartial when pronouncing the verdict.

Earlier, in December 2021, a court in Cherkessk sentenced Menchikova to five years of probation, just as now, disagreeing with the prosecutor's arguments about the need to send her to a penal colony for five years.

On April 20, 2017, the Russia's Supreme Court (SC), at the request of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), banned the religious communities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia treating them as extremist.

A huge responsibility for persecuting Jehovah's Witnesses* lies with those who disseminate false information about them, based on fabrications or deliberate lies, Yaroslav Sivulsky, a member of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses*, has commented on the situation in Russia.

*396 Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 24, 2024 at 04:49 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Naim Suleimanov

Source: СK correspondent