Another One of Jehovah's Witnesses from Vyselki Given Suspended Sentence

Sergey Dvurechenskiy, 50, has been given a 2-year suspended sentence. This decision was announced on December 9, 2025, by Judge Yelizaveta Proskuryakova of the Vyselkovskiy District Court. This is already the fifth verdict she has issued in a case involving Jehovah's Witnesses.

Sergey, who was born in Vyselki, has worked in construction for more than 20 years. At one of the court hearings, character references written by his employer and a neighbor were read aloud. According to Sergey's recollection, after the hearing the prosecutor called them "the description of an ideal person." Regarding the participants in the process the believer said: "It is one thing that they carry out their duties, but as people I see their wonderful traits".

In Vyselki, similar cases have been initiated against 14 more believers. Most of the charges are based on the testimony of a secret witness under the pseudonym "Pastyr," [Shepherd] who secretly recorded meetings for worship on video. "He never ever showed up at the hearing," Sergey said. "He's doing what he does for some reason — it's not for me to judge. But you know, I don't feel any anger or resentment toward him."

The court spent more than a year reviewing the recordings of meetings for worship. "I think it was good for both the judge and the prosecutor to listen to them," Dvurechenskiy thinks. "There were great points about family life and relationships. There's definitely nothing extremist in them."

The criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Vyselki has been ongoing since February 2022, when mass searches took place, which also affected Dvurechenskiy. Most cases against local believers have already resulted in guilty verdicts.