A Court Convicted 70-Year-Old Ural-based Retiree Lyudmila Salikova to Serve a Six-Year Suspended Sentence for Reading the Bible

On January 20, 2022, the judge of the Snezhinskiy City Court of the Chelyabinsk Region Timofey Smolyuk found Lyudmila Salikova guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist community and gave her a 6-year suspended sentence with a 4-year probation period for not giving up her faith in Jehovah God.

Speaking before the court, the believer said: "The goals of Jehovah's Witnesses are the most peaceful, and I am guided in my life exclusively by the Bible." She also noted: “I want to emphasize once again that my intent was not aimed at resuming the activities of any legal entities, but solely at exercising my right to profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses.”

On November 30, 2020, the investigator of the Investigative Committee for the Chelyabinsk Region, Alexandr Chepenko, searched Lyudmila Salikova, and 9 months later brought her in as a defendant under a serious criminal article. This is not the first time investigator Chepenko has initiated the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Chelyabinsk region and personally initiated at least 5 criminal cases against believers. Among those who have already received suspended sentences for their faith are pensioners Vladimir Suvorov and his wife Valentina.

Chepenko investigated the case for a year, and in November 2021 it was taken to court. The consideration of the case took two months. For six months the believer was under house arrest. Because of the criminal prosecution, the woman's reputation suffered, and Salikova had to resign from the Department of Municipal Services, where she worked as a leading engineer.

The charges were based on the testimony of an infiltrated FSB agent, Vera Kotelnikova, who feigned an interest in the Bible and made video and audio recordings of conversations. Later, they were sent for examination to three teachers of the Chelyabinsk State University: Andrey Konyuchenko, Yekaterina Zabelina and Olga Khokhlovskaya. After examining the conversations about God, they concluded that Lyudmila Salikova allegedly persuaded Kotelnikova to participate in the activities of the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" and the local organization. However, according to the law, the production of a forensic examination could not be entrusted to these specialists, since they are not state experts and do not have a religious education.

Although there is not a single victim in the case, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence the pensioner to 6.5 years in a penal colony.

The entire logic of Salikova's accusation was based on the fact that faith in God is "a continuation of the activities of an extremist organization." Consequently, instead of searching for and proving Lyudmila's "guilt", the prosecutor's office was busy proving that she professed the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, despite the fact that the believer never hid this fact. In addition, no religion is prohibited in Russia, and on October 28, 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed this when it clarified that the worship of Jehovah's Witnesses, their joint rites and ceremonies do not constitute a crime in themselves. Nevertheless, the court equated the peaceful pensioner with dangerous criminals and convicted her.

Lyudmila Salikova became the fifth woman in Russia to be convicted not for participating, but for organizing an extremist community just because of reading the Bible, praying and singing songs. Sentences under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for Valeriya Raiman, Yekaterina Pegasheva, Nataliya Sorokina and Mariya Troshina have already entered into force. The conviction of Lyudmila Salikova has not entered into force and can be appealed. The believer insists on her complete innocence.