A Court in Smolensk Sentenced Three of Jehovah's Witnesses to a Suspended Sentence of 6 to 6.5 Years for Reading the Bible

On April 23, 2021, the Industrial District Court of Smolensk found Valeriy Shalev, Yevgeniy Deshko and Ruslan Korolev guilty of organizing extremist activities in connection with their practice of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. Instead of the imprisonment requested by the prosecutor, the believers were assigned suspended sentences.

Judge Marina Masalskaya sentenced Valeriy Shalev and Ruslan Korolev to 6.5 years of conditional imprisonment with a probationary period of 5 years, 1 year of restriction of liberty and a ban on holding positions in religious organizations for a period of 4 years; Evgeniy Deshko – to 6 years probation with a probationary period of 4 years, 1 year of restriction of freedom and a ban on holding positions in religious organizations for a period of 3 years. Viktor Malkov was also found guilty under Part 1 of Art. 282.2, his case was dismissed due to the death of the defendant.

The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed. The believers insist on their complete innocence.

The case against Shalev, Deshko, Korolev and Malkov was initiated on April 25, 2019 under Art. 282.2 (2) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - participation in extremist activities. The Investigative Department of the FSB of Russia for the Smolensk Region investigated this case for almost a year (350 days). During this time, the charge was reclassified into articles of the Criminal Code, for which a more severe punishment is provided: the organization and financing of extremist activities. The criminal case was received by the Industrial District Court of Smolensk on April 9, 2020.

The investigation established that Shalev, Deshko, Korolev and Malkov, being believers, peacefully gathered together with fellow believers to pray to God and discuss the Bible. This was seen as a threat to the security of the state. It is noteworthy that the ruling on bringing them into custody states that, according to the investigation, the believers “organized [and] and conducted [and] a joint prayer to Jehovah, [and] demonstrated video clips ...”.

Despite the fact that there is not a single victim in the case, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence Deсhko and Shalev to 8 years of actual imprisonment, and Korolev to 9 years.

During the investigation, the believers spent 4 to 8 months in jail and another 3 to 7 months under house arrest. Exactly one year after the initiation of the criminal case, one of the accused, Viktor Malkov, died. In the pre-trial detention center and under house arrest, he did not receive proper treatment, which undermined his health.

The OSCE, the European Union, Russian human rights activists and many others condemn the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.