The Court Rejected the Appeal of Three Cheboksary-Based Jehovah's Witnesses. They Have Been Fined for Practicing Their Beliefs

On April 13, 2022, the Supreme Court of the Chuvash Republic approved fines against Vladimir Dutkin, Vladimir Chesnokov and Valeriy Yakovlev. Peaceful religious practice by Jehovah's Witnesses was equated by the court with extremist activity.

Earlier, the Kalininskiy District Court of Cheboksary sentenced believers to fines ranging from 400,000 to 500,000 rubles. The verdict has entered into force. The convicts consider it unfair and insist on their innocence. They have the right to file a cassation complaint, as well as apply to international institutions to defend their good name.

The court did not establish a single fact of extremist actions of the defendants. The examination of the case contains conclusions that the believers “called for honesty, restraint, and patience in relation to dissidents”; “in the submitted materials... there is a set of moral, ethical and behavioral norms, [...] which includes: chastity, honesty, restraint, respect for dissenting relatives.”

The defendant Vladimir Dutkin addressed the court with a rhetorical question: "If the Supreme Court did not ban the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, if the Government of the Russian Federation publicly declares that believers in Russia have the right to profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, then was I obliged to understand in any other way my religious rights enshrined in Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation?"