68-year-old Jehovah’s Witness* from Maikop sentenced to three years of imprisonment

In Maikop, a court sentenced Nikolai Voischev, a 68-year-old member of the Jehovah’s Witness* religious community, to three years of imprisonment, recognizing him an organizer of the activities of an extremist organization.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in October 2022, Nikolai Voischev was arrested on the charge of organizing the activities of an extremist organization. According to the investigators’ version, he held meetings and religious services, as well as “ideological indoctrination” of Adygea residents to increase the number of “followers of the extremist organization.”

The defence requested the court to transfer Nikolai Voischev under house arrest due to his serious chronic illness requiring constant monitoring by a doctor. In May, human rights defenders reported that Nikolai Voischev was not receiving the necessary medical treatment in a SIZO (pre-trial prison).

The Maikop City Court found Nikolai Voischev guilty of organizing the activities of the extremist organization and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment with a year’s restriction of freedom, the “Kavkaz.Realii”** reported with reference to a website covering the persecution of the Jehovah’s Witnesses* in Russia.

The court also banned Nikolai Voischev from being engaged in educational activities and participating in religious and public organizations for four years.

Taking into account the time spent in the SIZO, Nikolai Voischev has about a year and a half left to serve in a penal colony.

According to the “Kavkaz.Realii”**, the accusation was based on the testimonies of two secret witnesses who called Nikolai Voischev a member of the Jehovah’s Witness* religious community, but did not hear calls for extremism from him. Another basis for the charge was a psycholinguistic examination performed by a person without linguistic education.

Earlier, Yaroslav Sivulsky, the spokesperson for the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses, has reported that the Maikop community of the Jehovah’s Witnesses* was large and active before the court recognized the organization as extremist and banned it.

*396 Russian organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.