Persecuted Jehovah's Witnesses

About the people on the list

On 20 April 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia ruled to declare the Management Centre of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia an extremist organisation.

Local repressive measures against representatives of this religious movement have taken place before, but this decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation effectively outlawed tens of thousands of believers. It put the Russian regime on a par with the Stalinist and Hitler regimes, which persecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses en masse.

On the basis of the Supreme Court’s ruling, searches and arrests began in April 2018 in various regions, affecting dozens of believers, many of whom became defendants in criminal cases and were imprisoned. Since then, the pipeline of repression against peaceful believers has not stopped.

Most of them are charged under part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (‘Organising the activities of a religious organisation, in respect of which a decision was taken to liquidate in connection with the implementation of extremist activities’, liable to up to 10 years’ imprisonment), believers are also prosecuted under part 2 of article 282. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (‘Participation in the activities of a religious organisation which has been decided to liquidate due to extremist activities’, liable to up to 6 years‘ imprisonment) and under part 1.1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (’Inclination, recruitment or other involvement of a person in the activities of an extremist organisation‘, liable to up to 8 years’ imprisonment). In addition, we are aware that in some cases criminal proceedings have been initiated under part 4 of article 150 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (‘Involvement of a minor in a criminal group’, liable to up to 8 years’ imprisonment). In addition to part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, cases are also being brought under part 1 of article 282.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (‘Financing extremist activity’, liable to up to 8 years’ imprisonment).

We consider all of these people to be political prisoners, because charges brought solely on the basis of the fact that certain people, being Jehovah’s Witnesses believers, took part in rituals and meetings or distributed materials of this confession are discriminatory and violate international legal norms, in particular the right to freedom of religion. The most common charge under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation accuses the believer of simply being a member of an organised religious group. It is unquestionably unlawful. The charges against Jehovah’s Witnesses under Articles 282 and 282.3 of the Russian Criminal Code are similarly discriminatory because they criminalise the legitimate activities of believers: distributing religious materials and funding their communities respectively.

On 7 June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia’s ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses and persecution of believers was unlawful.

The ECHR ruled that Russia had violated the believers’ right to freedom of religion (Article 9 of the European Convention), freedom of expression (Article 10), freedom of assembly (Article 11), and the right to respect for property (Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention).

‘The Court finds <…> that the respondent State [Russia] must take all measures to discontinue the current criminal proceedings against the Jehovah’s Witnesses and to release the Jehovah’s Witness prisoners,’ the ruling said.