Court Sentenced the Previously Acquitted Aleksey Khabarov to 2.5 Years in a Penal Colony for His Faith

On October 20, 2023, the Porkhovskiy District Court of the Pskov Region issued a verdict already for the third time in the case of Aleksey Khabarov, one of Jehovah's Witnesses. This time, judge Natalya Kapustina found him guilty of extremism and sentenced him to 2.5 years in a penal colony. He was taken into custody in the courtroom.

Khabarov's charges for extremism were based on ordinary religious activities. The believer explained: "Practicing religion is not just silently believing that there is a God. Jehovah's Witnesses ... study the Bible, discuss it with others, and try to live in harmony with what is written in the Bible." In his final statement, he added: "My real motive — love — is directly opposite to enmity and hatred, which means that there is no criminal intent. Consequently, there is no corpus delicti." Once again, the believer has the right to appeal the court's decision.

The criminal prosecution of Khabarov began in 2019. The case did not go to court the first time — the prosecutor's identified shortcomings in it and returned it to the investigator. Since October 2020, court proceedings have been ongoing at various levels. At first, the court gave Khabarov a 3-year suspended sentence, although the prosecutor requested 3.5 years in a penal colony. The court of appeal overturned this decision, and the court, comprised of different judges, acquitted Khabarov. But at the second appeal the court disagreed with such a verdict and sent the case for the third consideration in the court of first instance.

This is not the first time that cases against Jehovah's Witnesses have been reviewed several times. This was the case with the Bazhenov couple and Vera Zolotova, Dmitriy Barmakin and Aleksandr Pryanikov, Venera and Darya Dulova. Russian and international law scholars are calling for an end to the repression of Jehovah's Witnesses.