Another Guilty Verdict Against One of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kamchatka. Believer, 45, Given 6-Year Suspended Sentence

On February 26, 2025, Aleksandr Kotkov, judge of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy City Court, declared Aleksey Ovchar's peaceful religious activity "a crime against the constitutional order of the state" and gave him a long suspended sentence.

Aleksey Ovchar faced criminal prosecution in 2022 at the same time as his fellow believers, Sergey and Yelena Chechulin. The believer was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and his bank accounts were blocked. Later, Aleksey's case was made into a separate proceeding. In October 2024, the Investigative Committee began investigating, and a month later the case went to court.

A significant part of the evidence obtained during the investigation did not concern Ovchar directly. The charge was based on 12 recordings of conversations between believers, during most of which Aleksey was not present. Also, as the believer noted, the expert conclusion in the case was conducted with numerous violations. Despite this, the prosecutor requested 6.5 years in a penal colony for Aleksey.

At one of the court hearings, Ovchar said: "I believe that the investigation is misled and mistakenly claims that peacefully practicing my religion is continuing the activity of an extremist organization. [...] I had every right to discuss the Bible and socialise with my fellow believers."

In total, 11 Jehovah's Witnesses are being prosecuted in the Kamchatka Territory. Eight of them have been convicted.