In Karachay-Cherkessia, the Fifth Sentence Was Passed Against One of Jehovah's Witnesses. Woman, 56, Received a Suspended Sentence for Faith

On January 20, 2025, the sentence to Rimma Popova, a resident of Cherkessk, was announced — 4.5 years of suspended imprisonment. Conversations about God and reading the Bible were equated by Judge Din-Islam Chotchaev with extremism. "I suffered a heart attack from the experience," the defendant said.

The believer faced criminal prosecution in June 2023, when her house was searched. Three months later, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against her. Rimma was interrogated and detained, and then the court placed her under house arrest for 2 months. Due to severe stress, the woman was hospitalized, and after being discharged, an electronic bracelet was put on her leg to track her whereabouts.

In April 2024, Popova's case came to the Cherkessk City Court. The accusation was based on the testimony of a woman with whom Rimma discussed the Bible. The believer commented on this as follows: "Was there anything extremist in our conversation with Miroshnik about marriage, during which we talked about how to strengthen it, how to relate to each other: it is important for a wife to be assured of love, and for a husband to be respected? That's what the Bible says."

Countering the accusation that she "continued to promote the advantage of the followers of the religious teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses," Popova noted: "It is strange that the prosecution did not cite a single quote from the notebooks, notebooks and notes seized from me, which allegedly contained such propaganda." The prosecutor asked for a punishment for the woman in the form of 4.5 years in a penal colony.

Back in 2022, Emily Baran, Ph.D., an expert on Russia and church-state relations, noted: "Russia continues to treat this religious community [of Jehovah's Witnesses] as dangerous extremists, despite the complete lack of evidence to support this claim." By 2024, 11 Jehovah's Witnesses, including 7 women, had already suffered for their faith in Karachay-Cherkessia.