Court in Birobidzhan Sentences Elderly Believer — Fine for Singing and Praying Together

On October 1, 2026, the Birobidzhanskiy District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region found Natalya Kocheva, 64, guilty of participating in the activity of an extremist organization. Judge Yuliya Tsykina imposed a fine of 40,000 rubles. The prosecutor had requested a 3-year suspended sentence.

In her final statement, Natalya quoted the aphorism by Kozma Prutkov, "If you see the label 'buffalo' on an elephant's enclosure, don't believe what you read," and suggested the court decide for itself what to believe: "whether what someone has written on paper — that I am a criminal — or what the court sees with its own eyes — proof of my innocence before the law."

At one of the hearings, Natalya drew attention to the expert studies at the core of the charges. One of them was conducted by an FSB officer. "In his conclusions, the expert did not cite a single phrase of mine that contained signs of incitement to hatred or... extremism," Natalya noted. She stated that the second expert conclusion was inadmissible evidence because it was conducted by a non-state organization, which, according to a Russian Government decree, is not permitted in extremism cases.

In April 2025, Dmitriy Yankin, investigator of the FSB, interrogated Natalya as a witness in the case of Oleg Postnikov. Yankin initiated a criminal prosecution against the believer 6 months later. The trial on the merits started in April 2026.

Birobidzhan remains a center of active persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Criminal cases in this city have already been initiated against 30 believers.