The Appeal Did Not Change the Sentence of Three Believers from Novocherkassk, Including a Woman, 68. Two Men Will Remain Behind Bars

On September 26, 2024, the Rostov Regional Court, chaired by Judge Sergey Shumeyev, approved the decision of the first instance: Gevorg Yeritsyan and Garegin Khachaturyan will continue to serve their six years and two months and six and a half years in a penal colony, respectively. Lyubov Galitsyna's term of two years and three months in colony is considered served, due to her prior detention.

The trial of the believers started in September 2023. At the hearings, recordings of hidden video filming, which was carried out in the house of Lyubov Galitsyna, were reviewed. The defense drew attention to the fact that there are no defendants in these videos and nothing extremist is happening in them. They also looked at the notes in the believer's notebooks, in which she wrote down her reflections on passages from the Bible to "understand better how to manifest the qualities pleasing to God, such as compassion, mercy." All three believers do not admit their guilt.

The Rostov Regional Court has repeatedly upheld the sentences of Jehovah's Witnesses. So far, 14 people have received up to seven years of actual imprisonment.