A Court in Novosibirsk Gave 71-year-old Tatyana Oleynik a 4-Year Suspended Sentence for Her Faith

On August 22, 2023, Marina Borzitskaya, judge of the Oktyabrskiy District Court of Novosibirsk, gave pensioner Tatyana Oleynik a 4-year suspended sentence for meetings with fellow believers, considering those "the participating in the activity of an extremist organization."

Tatyana Oleynik first experienced prosecution for her faith back in April 2019. Then, Tatyana's home was searched as part of a criminal case against several Jehovah's Witnesses from Novosibirsk. In November 2021, the Investigative Department of the FSB of Russia for the Novosibirsk Region initiated a case against Oleynik under Article 282.2(2) of the RF Criminal Code. At the end of 2022, the case went to court. The hearings continued for 8 months.

Addressing the court at one of the hearings, Tatyana explained that she "never carried out extremist activities and never committed actions aimed at inciting hatred or enmity". According to the believer, all her "actions were peaceful and were determined solely by the motive of fulfilling the commands recorded in the Bible and exercising the right to profess and share her faith in the ways characteristic of Jehovah's Witnesses". The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed.

Aleksandr Seredkin, from whose case the case against Tatyana Oleynik was separated, was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment and is currently serving this term in a penal colony. The cases against two other fellow believers of Tatyana, Valeriy Maletskov and Marina Chaplykina, were also made into separate proceedings and are still under consideration in another court in Novosibirsk.

In Novosibirsk, eight of Jehovah's Witnesses have faced criminal prosecution for their faith. One of them, Yuriy Savelyev, was recently released after serving his sentence in full.