Another sentencing for one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Birobidzhan. A court imposed a fine on Yuliya Kaganovich for believing in God

On February 16, 2021, Judge Vladimir Mikhalev of the Birobidzhan District Court found Yulyia Kaganovich, 54, guilty under part 2 of Article 282.2 of the RF Criminal Code. She was sentenced to a fine of 10,000 rubles with five months' installments. The prosecutor recommended four years of imprisonment in a penal colony plus two years of restrictions, and asked to take her into custody in the courtroom.

Yulia Kaganovich became the 68th Jehovah's Witness in Russia to be convicted for her faith. The verdict has not entered into force. There are no victims in the case. The believer insists on her complete innocence.

Yulyia Kaganovich is a creative person and an engineer by profession. Together with her husband they brought up their son, who, like Yulyia, was a musician. In her life Yulyia experienced a lot of shocks: loss of loved ones, betrayal, violence. This affected her poor health. Thanks to the Bible she was able to overcome all her trials and find meaning in her life. But now she is being prosecuted under an "extremist" article for her peaceful conversations on spiritual topics.

The persecution of Yulyia Kaganovich began almost a year and a half after the notorious large-scale operation codenamed "Judgment Day," involving 150 security forces.

The case against Yulyia Kaganovich was initiated on October 10, 2019. It was investigated by the investigative department of the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Jewish Autonomous Region. Cases against at least 21 believers, including Yulyia Kaganovich, were conducted by the same investigator—D. Yankin. Yulyia Kaganovich's case was investigated for about five months. She couldn't leave Birobidzhan for almost 1.5 years because she had to sign an undertaking not to leave.

On March 3, 2020, the case went to the Birobidzhan District Court of the EAD. The first hearing did not take place until nine months later, on December 24, 2020. The hearing was postponed several times due to her health condition, the coronavirus pandemic, or the illness of the judge. Yulyia Kaganovich's criminal case was considered by the same judge as the cases against Yelena Reino-Chernyshova, Svetlana Monis and Larisa Artamonova. Earlier, 6 verdicts against peaceful believers, who exercised their constitutional right to freedom of religion, had already been issued in the Jewish Autonomous Region. Among them are Yevgeny Golik, Anastasiya Sycheva and Artur Lokhvitsky.

The prosecution relied on audio recordings of telephone conversations and other materials that had nothing to do with the defendant. For example, the prosecution presented conversations of believers on spiritual topics, discussion of work schedules and leisure activities as evidence of the defendant's involvement in extremist activities.

Russian and international legal scholars unanimously condemn the actions of the authorities against Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation. For example, human rights activists of the international society "Memorial" drew attention to the incompatibility of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses with common sense: "It is absurd when Jehovah's Witnesses, convicted under the Soviet authorities, are recognized as victims of political repression in accordance with the Federal Law on Rehabilitation (1991)—while simultaneously being sent to prison as current Jehovah's Witnesses".