A court in Mordovia sentenced two Jehovah’s Witnesses to long prison terms

It became known that on September 19, Judge Inna Balyasina of the Proletarsky District Court of Saransk found Ivan Neverov and Mikhail Shevchuk guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1, Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code) and sentenced Neverov to 7 years in a penal colony and Shevchuk to 6 and a half years. After the verdict was announced, the believers were taken into custody. The information was reported by the website Jehovah’s Witnesses. Legal Situation in Russia.

Earlier, in February 2023, searches were carried out at ten addresses of local Jehovah’s Witnesses in Saransk. Electronic devices, religious literature, and personal notes were seized from them.

Three believers — Artyom Velichko, Ivan Neverov, and Mikhail Shevchuk — were placed in pretrial detention. According to the investigation, knowing that the organization was declared extremist, they “continued its ideological and propaganda activities, actively involving new members.”

Three months later, the measure of restraint was softened, and they were placed under house arrest. Another three months later, this was replaced with a ban on certain activities. In October 2024, the case of Artyom Velichko was separated into a separate proceeding.

Mikhail Shevchuk is a fourth-generation Jehovah’s Witness. In the 1940s, two of Mikhail’s great-grandfathers were sentenced to long prison terms, their property confiscated, and they were exiled to Siberia. Both were later rehabilitated.

In August 2022, Mikhail’s younger brother, Aleksandr Shevchuk, and Ivan Neverov’s half-brother, Vladimir Atryakhin, were also sentenced to prison for their faith. Aleksandr was released in November 2023, while Vladimir will remain imprisoned until March 2028.

You can write letters to the accused at the following address:

RU:

430003, Республика Мордовия, г. Саранск, СИЗО № 1 по Республике Мордовия, Ул. Рабочая, д. 147,

• Неверов Иван Евгеньевич, 1986 г. р.
• Шевчук Михаил Станиславович, 1986 г. р.;

ENG:

• Shevchuk Mikhail Stanislavovich, born 1986
• Neverov Ivan Evgenyevich, born 1986

Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 of the Republic of Mordovia, 147 Rabochaya St., Saransk, Republic of Mordovia, 430003.

ZT service is available.

Please note that letters in languages other than Russian are highly unlikely to reach the intended recipient.

In April 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia declared the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” an extremist organization and liquidated it. In August of the same year, all Jehovah’s Witness communities were added to the list of banned extremist organizations.

We consider Ivan Neverov, Mikhail Shevchuk, and other Jehovah’s Witnesses deprived of liberty to be political prisoners.