Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova of Birobidzhan was ordered to pay a fine. This is an eighth conviction for practicing one's faith in the Jewish Autonomous Region

On February 17, 2021 Vladimir Mikhalyov, judge of the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region, found Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova guilty under part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of a banned organization). She was sentenced to a fine of 10,000 rubles. The prosecutor asked for 4 years of imprisonment.

The sentence has not come into force. The believer pleaded not guilty and asked for full acquittal. There were no victims in the case.

Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova is an accountant by profession. She had lost her job at the financial department of the Government of the Jewish Autonomous Region and her position as deputy head of the financial department of the district administration because of her criminal prosecution for her belief in God. Her husband recently suffered a third heart attack. Her elderly mother also has serious heart problems and needs her daughter's care.

Elena has been under house arrest since October 1, 2019. She was one of 21 victims of criminal prosecution for "extremism" who were initiated and investigated by FSB investigator D. S. Yankin. A total of 22 Jehovah's Witnesses were prosecuted in Birobidzhan. The persecution of civilians began after a large-scale operation codenamed "Judgment Day" with the participation of 150 security officials.

The Reyno-Chernyshova case was opened on September 25, 2019. It was separated from the case against Alam Aliyev (currently under house arrest). The investigation lasted 5 months and 7 days. On March 3, 2020, the case went to court.

There have already been 8 convictions of peaceful believers who exercised their constitutional right to freedom of religion in the Jewish Autonomous Region. Among them are Yevgeny Golik, Anastasia Sycheva, Arthur Lokhvitsky and others.

Yelena Reyno-Chernyshova personally sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin, and received an answer. In court, she referred to it, as well as to an annual press conference held in December 2020, where the president said that "there was no repression on religious grounds in Russia...there was no selective persecution for any particular religion."

Russian human rights activists, as well as the international community, consider the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to be inappropriate.

For example, Vladimir Ryakhovsky, a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, says that the persecution of Witnesses in Russia has far-reaching consequences: "It always started with Jehovah's Witnesses and then reflected on everyone."