On August 6, 2025, during a debate in the Komsomolsky District Court of the Khabarovsk Territory, the prosecutor requested punishment of 10 Jehovah’s Witnesses. Believers Mikhail Dorofeev, Nikolai Kovadnev and Radion Shitov, accused under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization), the prosecutor asked to impose seven years in prison, and the rest of the defendants in the case – spouses Ulita and Sergei Sachnev, Irina Bondareva and her son Vasily, Marina Voitko, Ivan Nikitin and Svetlana Zharkova – four years of imprisonment under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization).
The criminal case was initiated on May 4, 2023. On May 25 of the same year, mass searches of Jehovah’s Witnesses were carried out in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. According to the investigation, believers held religious meetings, speeches and worship services – including with the help of Zoom.The case was submitted to the court in October 2024.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are accused of involvement in the activities of an extremist organization due to the fact that in April 2017 the Supreme Court of Russia decided to recognize the Management Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia and 395 local religious organizations as extremist.
This decision, which entailed mass persecution of believers under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code, had no legal grounds, and it is to be regarded as a manifestation of religious discrimination. In June 2022, the ECHR issued an order on the complaint of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in which they recognized that the prohibition of their materials and organizations and the persecution of believers contradict the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and demanded to stop criminal cases under Art. 282.2 Criminal Code against Jehovah’s Witnesses and release the believers in prison.
