The prosecutor requested 3.5 years in prison for faith for a resident of Perm

The trial of Alexander Solovyov, who is charged under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of the activities of an extremist organization), has ended in Perm. The prosecutor's office requested that the 49-year-old believer be sent to a penal colony for a period of three and a half years (see chronology of the case).

The trial lasted six sessions, the announcement of the verdict is scheduled for July 4, 2019, 11:00. At the same time, there are no victims in the case.

Alexander Solovyov may become the second Jehovah's Witness in Russia to go to prison for his faith. Earlier this month, Dennis Christensen, a believer from Oryol, went to serve his sentence in the Kursk region.

Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses has been growing lately, and a record number of 37 believers are being held in pre-trial detention centers in different cities of the country. This is despite the fact that the Russian government assured that the decisions of the Russian courts on the liquidation and prohibition of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually." Public figures, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and other Russian and international organizations have repeatedly drawn attention to religious repressions.