{"id":63557,"date":"2026-08-06T18:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T15:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/news\/sud-v-apellyaczii-uzhestochil-prigovor-dvum-svidetelyam-iegovy-iz-omska\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T11:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T08:28:10","slug":"appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1540\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg\" alt=\"\u0434\u0435\u043b\u0430 \u0441\u0432\u0438\u0434\u0435\u0442\u0435\u043b\u0435\u0439 \u0418\u0435\u0433\u043e\u0432\u044b\" class=\"wp-image-30326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg 1540w, https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3-768x299.jpg 768w, https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3-1536x598.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1540px) 100vw, 1540px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On 6 August, Judge Elena Shtokalenko of the Omsk Regional Court heard the appeal against the sentences imposed on Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev and increased their sentences, replacing three and a half years and three years of compulsory labour at a correctional centre, respectively, with six years each in a general-regime penal colony. Both men were taken into custody. The ruling was reported by the <em>SOVA Center for Information and Analysis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Criminal proceedings against Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev on charges of organising extremist activity were initiated in March 2024. They were accused of organising meetings at which biblical literature was discussed. Following searches during which the believers were beaten, they were remanded in custody, then released under house arrest six months later, and placed under restrictions on certain activities a further six months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev did not admit guilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In April 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia declared the <em>Administrative Centre of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses<\/em> in Russia an extremist organisation and ordered its dissolution. In August of the same year, all Jehovah\u2019s Witness congregations were added to the list of banned extremist organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We consider Leonid Pyzhov, Sergei Rygayev and other imprisoned Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses to be political prisoners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-63557","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","regions-omsk-oblast","news-type-nashi-novosti-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk - Political prisoners support. Memorial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Judge Elena Shtokalenko heard the appeal against the sentences imposed on Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev and increased their sentences\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk - Political prisoners support. Memorial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Judge Elena Shtokalenko heard the appeal against the sentences imposed on Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev and increased their sentences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Political prisoners support. Memorial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T08:28:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/\",\"name\":\"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk - Political prisoners support. Memorial\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-06T15:22:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-07T08:28:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"Judge Elena Shtokalenko heard the appeal against the sentences imposed on Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev and increased their sentences\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0430\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u041d\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0438\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/\",\"name\":\"\u041f\u043e\u0434\u0434\u0435\u0440\u0436\u043a\u0430 \u043f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0437\u0430\u043a\u043b\u044e\u0447\u0451\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0445. \u041c\u0435\u043c\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0430\u043b\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk - Political prisoners support. Memorial","description":"Judge Elena Shtokalenko heard the appeal against the sentences imposed on Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev and increased their sentences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk - Political prisoners support. Memorial","og_description":"Judge Elena Shtokalenko heard the appeal against the sentences imposed on Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev and increased their sentences","og_url":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/","og_site_name":"Political prisoners support. Memorial","article_modified_time":"2026-08-07T08:28:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1540,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/","url":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/","name":"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk - Political prisoners support. Memorial","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-06T15:22:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-07T08:28:10+00:00","description":"Judge Elena Shtokalenko heard the appeal against the sentences imposed on Leonid Pyzhov and Sergei Rygayev and increased their sentences","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/svideteli1-1-3.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/appeals-court-increases-sentences-for-two-jehovahs-witnesses-from-omsk\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0430","item":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u041d\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0438","item":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Appeals court increases sentences for two Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Omsk"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/","name":"\u041f\u043e\u0434\u0434\u0435\u0440\u0436\u043a\u0430 \u043f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0437\u0430\u043a\u043b\u044e\u0447\u0451\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0445. \u041c\u0435\u043c\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0430\u043b","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/63557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}