In Birobidzhan, the Court Again Imposed a 2.5-Year Suspended Sentence on Yevgeniy Yegorov. He is Considered an Extremist for Continuing to Talk About the Bible

On February 17, 2023, the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region, after a retrial of the case, sentenced one of Jehovah's Witnesses, Yevgeniy Yegorov, again to 2 years and 6 months suspended with a 1-year restriction of liberty.

“The respected prosecutor believes that I need to reform. To do this, I must first at least understand in what way, - Yevgeniy expressed his bewilderment to the court. “The reason for the investigation was peaceful Bible discussion, and not a single law of the state and not a single court decision prohibited this.”

“The investigator said that if I prayed to God at home, believed in him only in my soul and did not express my faith in any way, then I would not be persecuted as an extremist. But such a position contradicts the very essence of faith, ” said Yevgeniy.

The criminal prosecution of this peaceful Christian has been going on for almost 5 years now. In 2018, Birobidzhan law enforcement officers searched his house, and a year later they accused the believer of extremism. The first court hearing began in the winter of 2020. Within two years, the case reached the Ninth Court of Cassation in Vladivostok, which sent it for a second appeal, which, in turn, sent it for a new consideration.

During these years, Yegorov faced a number of difficulties. On the very day of Yevgeniy's wedding, the FSB charged his mother and several friends with extremism. Then the believer himself was under a recognizance agreement. “Because of this, my wife and I faced serious financial problems from the start of family life. But we did not lose heart,” said Yevgeniy. Soon the newlyweds learned that they were expecting a baby. The believer recalls: “Friends came to our aid. After the birth of our son, we received parcels with children's goods. And the words of support from fellow believers were very reassuring.”

The June 7, 2022 judgement of the European Court of Human Rights emphasizes that the behavior of the Russian authorities towards Jehovah's Witnesses contains "indications of a policy of intolerance ... designed to cause [believers] to abandon their faith and prevent others from joining it" (§254).