In Orenburg, Five of Jehovah's Witnesses Got Suspended Sentences of 2.5 to 3.5 Years for Meetings With Fellow Believers

On August 28, 2023, Diana Sudorgina, judge of the Promyshlenniy District Court of Orenburg, found five Jehovah's Witnesses guilty of participating in the activity of an extremist organization and gave them from 2.5 to 3.5 years suspended sentences. The prosecutor had requested for them the same lenghths of terms, but in a general regime penal colony. The believers plead not guilty of extremism.

Sergey Logunov, 60, was given a 2.5-year suspended sentence with restriction of liberty for 8 months and a probation period of 2 years. The court gave 30-year-old Vladislav Kolbanov a 3.5-year suspended with restriction of liberty for 10 months and a probation period of 3 years. Vladimir Kochnev, 42, was given a suspended sentence of 2 years and 8 months with restriction of freedom for 10 months and a probation period of 2 years and 2 months. The judge gave 42-year-old Pavel Lekontsev a 3-year suspended sentence with restriction of liberty for 10 months and a probation period of 2.5 years. 47-year-old Nikolay Zhugin, 47,  was given a 2.5-year suspended sentence with restriction of liberty for 8 months and a probation period of 2 years. The judge placed all believers under a recognizance agreement.

On May 14, 2018, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case, interpreting friendly meetings of believers in a café as the continuation of the activity of a banned religious organization. After mass searches in the Orenburg Region, the law enforcement officers sent Kolbanov and Kochnev to a temporary detention facility, the others were placed under recognizance agreements. Soon Kochnev ended up in a detention center, and Kolbanov was put under house arrest. Kochnev spent about three months behind bars. After 1.5 years of investigation, the charges against the believers were reclassified to milder ones.

In December 2019, the case was submitted to the Promyshlenniy District Court, but Judge Tatyana Gorbacheva did not find in the case any specific accusation against the believers, nor the motives and objectives of the "crime". Therefore, the case was returned to the prosecutor's office and only more than a year later it was again submitted to the same court for consideration by Judge Igor Izmailov. The defense filed a motion to recuse him, and a new judge, Diana Sudogrina, entered the case. During the court hearings, forgery in the texts of transcripts and errors in expert studies were revealed.

The prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orenburg on the basis of religion has been going on for the sixth year. International organizations, human rights activists, as well as the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights have repeatedly expressed concern about repression for faith in Russia.