Kuban Jehovah’s Witness* placed to punishment cell twice within month

In the Krasnodar Territory, warders of a penal colony sent Jehovah’s Witness* Vasily Meleshko, convicted in a case on extremism, to a punishment cell twice within a month.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Vasily Meleshko was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in a case on extremism. The believer was charged with holding lectures and discussing religious books. In August 2023, Vasily Meleshko was placed in a penal colony for 15 days.

In early March, Vasily Meleshko was transferred to a penitentiary colony in the village of Akhtarsky in the Krasnodar Territory, after which he was twice placed to a punishment cell for 15 days. The convict is serving his second sentence there. The reasons for his placement to the punishment cell are unknown, the “OVD-Info”* human rights project reports.

Let us remind you that in the summer of 2022, Vasily Meleshko reported that he was not receiving the necessary medical care in the penal colony. The convict was given little food in the medical unit, which is why Vasily Meleshko got his pancreas inflamed, but medical officers refused to subject him to surgery.

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

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.