The verdict has been announced for the 65th Jehovah's Witness. In Birobidzhan, Igor Tsarev was given a suspended sentence of 2.5 years for reading the Bible

On February 12, 2021 judge of the Birobidzhan district court of EAD Aleksey Ivaschenko sentenced the peaceful believer to 2,5 year suspended sentence with restriction of freedom for 1 year and with probation for 2 years. He was declared guilty of participating in extremist activities (Part 2, Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The sentence has not entered into force. He will be under house arrest until the verdict comes into force.

Although there were no victims in the case, the prosecutor asked for four years in prison for the believer. 46-year-old Igor Tsarev and his wife are raising a schoolgirl daughter. His suspended sentence condemns him to a life of constant fear, as he may go to jail at any time if law enforcement officials deem his individual faith "an extension of the organization.” The believer insists on his innocence and will appeal his sentence.

Reading the Bible with friends and improving his communication skills on spiritual topics was equated by the investigation with criminal activity. "I am a Jehovah's Witness, but that does not automatically make me a criminal," Tsarev told the court shortly before the verdict was read, "As a people, we are known for our peacefulness. Jehovah's Witnesses form an international brotherhood based on love and mutual respect. The Bible taught me to be a decent man, a responsible husband, a good father, a devoted friend... not to repay evil for evil to anyone. Is this extremism in the sense of our legislation?"

In Birobidzhan, security forces have been harassing peaceful believers since the fall of 2015. It was then that the first planting of banned literature in the worship buildings of Jehovah's Witnesses was recorded. Jehovah's Witnesses from Birobidzhan learned about the beginning of repression for the faith in 2018 when a special operation involving 150 law enforcement officers was carried out against them. The Federal Security Service of Russia in the Jewish Autonomous Region initiated a criminal case against Igor Tsarev on July 30, 2019. The believer has been under house arrest for about 1.5 years (since August 13, 2019).

The preliminary investigation into Igor Tsarev's case lasted about 5 months. The charges were based on video footage obtained by FSB officers during covert filming of worship services. On December 23, 2019, the case went to court. Most of the hearings were held behind closed doors at the request of the prosecutor. In his opinion, this was necessary to "secure" the participants in the trial from the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. The trial lasted almost 14 months.

The Jewish Autonomous Region is one of the regions with the largest number of criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses. Nineteen criminal cases against 22 Jehovah's Witnesses are in various stages of review by the EAO courts. Three local Jehovah's Witnesses, Yevgeniy Golik, Artur Lokhvitskiy, and Anastasiya Sycheva, have already been convicted for these peaceful people exercising their constitutional right to freedom of religion. Igor Tsarev became the 64th resident of modern-day Russia to be criminally convicted for practicing his faith in Jehovah.

During the hearings on Tsarev's case, the prosecutor acknowledged the right, enshrined in Article 28 of the Russian Constitution, for citizens "to practice any religion individually or in association with others." At the same time, he claimed that Igor Tsarev was allowed to believe "only within himself" and was not allowed to participate in biblical discussions with co-religionists.

Russian and foreign figures and organizations unanimously condemn the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that decisions of Russian courts to liquidate and ban Jehovah's Witnesses organizations "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, nor do they restrict or prohibit the individual practice of the above-mentioned doctrine.