Roman Gumenyuk, Son of One of Jehovah's Witness Convicted in Soviet Times and Rehabilitated, Received Five-Year Suspended Sentence for His Faith. Believer Does Not Admit Guilt

On November 19, 2024, the judge of the Korsakov City Court, Marina Zelenina, sentenced Roman Gumenyuk, 42, to 5 years of suspended imprisonment. The court considered participation in peaceful worship and conversations about God with other people to be participation in the activities of an extremist organization and involvement in it.

As an additional punishment, the court sentenced the believer to restriction of freedom for 2 years with a probationary period of 3 years. The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed.

Roman Gumenyuk is a third-generation Jehovah's Witness. In Soviet times, his father was sentenced to three years in prison for his religious beliefs but was later rehabilitated as a victim of political repression.

Now Roman himself is under criminal prosecution. It all started in July 2023, when Major of Justice E. V. Maksimov opened a criminal case against him under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Later, law enforcement officers searched the man's house and his car. The investigation lasted a year, and in June 2024, the case went to court. The prosecutor in the debate asked for 5 years in a general regime colony for the defendant. During the court hearing, Roman tried to express his attitude to the charges, but the judge interrupted his speech. The court found the believer guilty of extremism in seven sessions.

The believer does not consider himself guilty. In his final statement, he expressed his feelings as follows: "For me, believing and worshiping Jehovah God is like breathing. Law enforcement agencies, represented by investigators, FSB officers, the prosecutor and others, are trying, figuratively speaking, to cut off my oxygen . . . by making him renounce his best friend, the God whose name is Jehovah."

In the Sakhalin Region, 10 people have already been prosecuted for believing in Jehovah God. Back in June 2018, the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights commented on the situation around Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia: "The charges brought against believers in all cases are based on the allegation that a group of believers held a worship service. [...] This cannot but cause concern, since criminal prosecutions and arrests have become systemic. The situation is associated with the Soviet period, when "Jehovah's Witnesses" were subjected to unreasonable repression on the basis of religion, because of which the Law of the Russian Federation of October 18, 1991, No. 1761-1, "On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression," was extended to them."