The Court in Birobidzhan Sentenced Yevgeny Yegorov to 2.5 Years Suspended for Discussing the Bible

On June 21, 2021, the judge of the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Aleksey Ivashchenko, sentenced 30-year-old Jehovah's Witness Yevgeniy Yegorov to 2.5 years of probation and 1 year of restriction of freedom for meeting with fellow believers, considering it "participation in the activities of a banned organization."

The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed. The believer insists on his complete innocence. “In this trial, I have heard more than once that I am being tried for extremism, I am not being tried for my religious beliefs,” Yevgeny said in his last word. “But there is no evidence of my «extremism». I’m under the trial for participation [in an extremist organization], but participation was expressed in Bible study, which is part of my faith. But in the same time I’m under the trial not for my faith. So who will explain to me, a legally uneducated person, what is my crime? "

Yevgeniy Yegorov is an aspiring writer. In May 2018, his apartment was searched and he lost his manuscripts. The persecution for the faith deprived a young family man of the opportunity to take proper care of a young child.

The persecution of Yevgeniy Yegorov and other peaceful believers in Birobidzhan began in May 2018 after a large-scale operation codenamed “Doomsday”. A criminal case against Yegorov was initiated on July 29, 2019. It was investigated by the Investigative Department of the Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region. On December 23, 2019, the case file went to court. The prosecutor asked to impose a punishment on the believer in the form of 4 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony plus 1 year of restraint of freedom.

Yevgeniy's mother, Larisa Artamonova, was convicted under the same criminal article. In April 2021, the court of the Jewish Autonomous Region toughened the decision of the lower court and replaced her with a fine of 10,000 rubles for 2.5 years of probation and 1 year of restraint of liberty. In total, 10 Jehovah's Witnesses have already been convicted for their faith with varying degrees of punishment in the Jewish Autonomous Region. For another 4 believers, the trials are nearing completion.

All cases were initiated only because the believers peacefully confessed their religious beliefs and gathered for services. The world community unequivocally classifies this as a violation of fundamental human rights.