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For the First Time Since 2017, a Criminal Case Has Been Initiated Against Jehovah's Witnesses in the Leningrad Region for Their Faith. Five People Are Behind Bar
Leningrad Region*Text updated April 20, 2023
On February 19, 2023, in Kingisepp and Slantsy, five believers were detained as a result of seven searches conducted by the Investigative Committee.
Igor Zhmyrev, age 52; Kirill Khabrik, age 33; Andrey Morozov, age 47; Yevgeniy Poveshchenko, age 54; and Sergey Ryabokon, age 33, ended up in a temporary detention facility in the city of Slantsy.
On February 21, 2023, Judge Yekaterina Ivanova of the Kingisepp City Court of the Leningrad Region ruled to detain Sergey Ryabokon and Andrey Morozov for two months. Kirill Khabrik and Igor Zhmyrev also ended up in the pre-trial detention center.
Update.
On March 23, 2023, security forces conducted six new searches in Kingisepp. Eleven believers were interrogated. Five were placed in a temporary detention center in Saint Petersburg; the others were released. Igor Shevlyuga, age 36; Miroslav Sabodash, age 43; Konstantsiya Vovk, age 48; Tatyana Stepanova, age 48; and Aleksandr Vaganov were put behind bars.
Later, the court released everyone, except for Igor Shevlyuga, and imposed on them a ban on certain actions; it also extended the preventive measure imposed on Yevgeniy Poveshchenko—a recognizance agreement. On April 19, 2023, Shevlyuga was also released from custody under a ban on certain actions.
On February 19, 2023, a criminal case was initiated against several believers under parts 1 and 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Searches were conducted in their homes. Aleksey Romanov, Senior Investigator of the Investigative Committee, leads the investigative team in this criminal case. The team also includes Investigators K. A. Dmitriyev; D. A. Shevtsova; K. A. Podolyanets; K. A. Vasilyeva; and Deputy Head of the Investigative Department I. A. Podkurkov.
The searches lasted up to five hours. At least two women required emergency medical attention. In one case, the persons under investigation were not at home. However, their elderly mother, who was evacuated from a war zone, was in their apartment. She is missing one eye, has glaucoma in the other, and recently had a heart attack. She felt ill. The security forces seized her medical documents along with telephones, SIM cards and personal items belonging to the persons under investigation.
Friends who were visiting believers at the time of the search were brought in for interrogation and later released. During the investigative measures, printed publications, computer equipment, documents and money were seized.
According to a statement from the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Leningrad Region, one of the believers is suspected of "organizing propaganda meetings with the participation of adherents via videoconference and at their places of residence." The investigation equates conducting peaceful worship services with organizing the activities of an extremist organization (part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). What exactly the other detainees are suspected of is still unknown.
The Leningrad Region has become the 72nd region of Russia where criminal cases have been initiated against peaceful and law-abiding Christians—Jehovah's Witnesses. As Aleksander Verkhovskiy, director of the information and analytical center SOVA, said (original in English): “The scale and cruelty of pressure [on believers] is growing. Last year we harbored some hope that the repressive campaign could at least slow down, but we were wrong.”
In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights emphasized that the actions of the Russian authorities "disclosed indications of a policy of intolerance . . . designed to cause Jehovah’s Witnesses to abandon their faith and to prevent others from joining it” (§·254). Despite demands by human rights organizations and the world community to stop the persecution, believers in dozens of regions of the Russian Federation are being prosecuted merely for their peaceful beliefs.
