Fine for Talking About the Bible. Court in Stavropol Territory Convicted 83-Year-Old Widow with a Disability

On October 16, 2023, Stanislav Bobrovsky, judge of the Zheleznovodsk City Court of the Stavropol Territory, found Zinaida Minenko guilty of extremism and sentenced her to a fine of 330,000 rubles. According to the judge, the elderly believer broke the law when she talked to people about the Bible.

The criminal prosecution of the believer began in November 2021 on the initiative of Pavel Gogolin, investigator of the Investigative Committee. Her home and the homes of several other Jehovah's Witnesses were searched. The pensioner was also taken to a search of her garage without being given the opportunity to eat or drink water, and then interrogated for 4 hours. As a result, she required emergency medical attention.

Later it became clear that the investigation deemed Zinaida's conversations with people about God to be involving others in the activity of an extremist organization. These conversations were secretly recorded. After 4 months of investigation, the case was sent to court. The charges were based on hidden audio recordings, as well as the testimony of two secret witnesses. One of them admitted that she herself had come to the defendant to discuss the Bible. According to her, Zinaida never encouraged her to hate, but, on the contrary, taught her to treat people with love. Other witnesses for the prosecution admitted in court that they had testified on the basis of rumors and assumptions, and could only confirm that Minenko was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. The prosecution also presented to the court an expert study of audio recordings of meetings for worship and her personal conversations on Bible topics. However, the defense drew the court's attention to the substitution of legal with religious concepts in the study.

Zinaida Minenko has severe visual impairment and loss of hearing. She has lived alone ever since she was widowed in January 2020. The believer expressed that due to the prosecution by the authorities her emotional and physical health deteriorated. Despite her age and state of health, as well as the lack of evidence of guilt, the prosecutor requested a 5-year suspended sentence for her.

In her final statement, Zinaida said: "I never thought that I would sit in the dock at the age of 83, nevermind, charged for extremism. [...] Once again, I want to emphasize that the purpose of my conversations with people was a sincere desire to share Bible hope with them; I spoke only with those people who themselves wanted to talk to me, I did not force anyone, and how could I force someone at my age. I genuinely don't understand how Bible advice could be extremist."

Apart from Zinaida Minenko, 12 other Jehovah's Witnesses 80 years of age or older, have faced criminal prosecution for their faith. Six of them have received suspended sentences.

The RF Supreme Court did not ban the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses as a religious denomination and did not deprive believers of the right to practice their religion. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation admitted that the Supreme Court "did not assess either the legality of the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses or the ways in which they are expressed."