First Woman Jehovah’s Witness Sentenced to Prison in Russia

A court in southerly Siberia has actually punished a woman Jehovah’s Witness to a real jail term for the very first time as component of Russia’s continuous campaign against participants of the Christian religion, the religious team stated.

The court in the republic of Khakassia’s regional funding of Abakan ruled that Valentina Baranovskaya, 69, as well as her kid Roman Baranovsky continued to execute religious tasks despite the Russian Supreme Court’s 2017 restriction on the Jehovah’s Witnesses as “extremist.” Baranovskaya has actually been sentenced to two years after being found guilty on criminal fees of involvement in an outlawed company.

In a declaration emailed to The Moscow Times, the Jehovah’s Witnesses company said the criminal situation stems from recordings of discussions between believers which resulted in an April 2019 raid on the Baranovskys’ residence. Physicians diagnosed Baranovskaya with an analytical infarction, or ischemic stroke, in summer 2020.

” There are no extremist declarations in their conversations. There are no targets in the event,” the group’s declaration claimed.

A court data source having the court’s name and the criminal extremism instance on which she bied far the verdict has withheld the defendants’ names in addition to those of the defense lawyers and district attorneys.

State district attorneys had asked for 5 years behind bars for Baranovskaya as well as 8 years for her son, who was sentenced to 6 years in prison on much more serious charges of arranging an extremist team.

Baranovskaya’s defense strategies to appeal the sentence, which has actually not yet entered force.

The Baranovskys’ sentencing “takes the suppression versus Jehovah’s Witnesses to a brand-new degree,” claimed Yaroslav Sivulsky, a representative for the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

” Modern Russia in terms of the degree of unmotivated religious oppression is coming close to the Soviet Union,” Sivuslky said.

The U.S. State Department condemned previously this month Russia’s suppression on Jehovah’s Witnesses “in the best feasible terms.”

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