Court in Sverdlovsk Region Passes Guilty Verdict for Faith. Three Jehovah's Witnesses Received 6-Year Suspended Sentences

The Lesnoy City Court found three local believers guilty. On November 25, 2024, Andrey Kozhushko, Andrey Bannykh and Pavel Loshchinin were given suspended sentences. Meetings for worship, during which Bible teachings were discussed, were deemed by the court as organizing the activity of an extremist organization.

The investigation lasted about a year. The Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Sverdlovsk Region initiated the case in March 2023, and in May of the following year it was submitted to the court for consideration by Lyudmila Yerzikova. The prosecutor requested 7 years imprisonment for the three defendants, including Andrey Kozhushko, 49, who is disabled. The believers do not agree with the verdict.

"I saved dozens of lives, for which I received a government award," said Pavel Loshchinin, 37, in his final statement. "And now it is as if my life is completely crossed out and will be like a struggle for survival, because I am branded an extremist. I will never accept this stigma." Andrey Bannykh, 60, said that a person who lives according to God's laws cannot be an extremist: "Jehovah's Witnesses invariably respect and obey the authorities in the country where they live." Andrey Kozhushko expressed bewilderment: "What is being done against me and other [Jehovah's] Witnesses — false accusations of extremism, interrogations, detentions, searches, torture, confiscations, blocking of bank cards and accounts — is clear persecution for our faith, in one word, repression. All this is happening to peaceful and respectable citizens of this country... I just can't get my head around it."

This is not the first conviction of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Sverdlovsk Region. Aleksandr Pryanikov, Venera and Darya Dulova received suspended sentences from 1 to 2.5 years after 4 appeals.