21 September 2024, 23:56
Sentences of three Jehovah’s Witnesses* from Elista toughened
The court of appeal has imposed additional restrictions on freedom for Jehovah’s Witnesses* from Elista Kishta Tutinova, Tsagan Khalgaeva, and Yekaterina Menkova, who were sentenced to suspended imprisonment on the charges of extremism.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on June 24, the Elista City Court sentenced Kishta Tutinova to three years and Tsagan Khalgaeva and Yekaterina Menkova – to two years of suspended imprisonment.
The public prosecution asked the court for longer terms of suspended imprisonment for all three women. A public prosecutor requested the court to sentence Kishta Tutinova to six years, Tsagan Khalgaeva – to three years, and Yekaterina Menkova – to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment.
The court sentenced Kishta Tutinova to four years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of three years and one year of restriction of freedom, and the court added six months of additional restriction of freedom to Yekaterina Menkova and Tsagan Khalgaeva, the “OVD-Info”** human rights project reports.
The reason for changing the sentence in all three cases has been mentioned as “incorrect application of the criminal law.”
Let us remind you that none of those questioned in court confirmed that the defendants had made extremist statements.
*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.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 20, 2024 at 02:39 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot
