A Russian court docket sentenced three Jehovah’s Witnesses late final week to jail phrases of six and one-half to seven and one-half years, on prime of their pre-sentencing detention of 28 months every, the group reported Monday.
The sentences come close to the top of a brutal yr for members of the Christian group in Russia and had been condemned by members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
A complete of 127 Witnesses are in Russian Federation prisons as of Wednesday, the group stated.
Witness member Aleksandr Rumyantsev, 46, obtained a sentence of seven and one-half years; church member Sean Pike, 52, a local of Guyana, obtained a seven-year time period; and 59-year-old Eduard Sviridov obtained a six-and-one-half yr sentence.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, present USCIRF chair, stated on X, “Russia’s harsh sentencing of 3 Jehovah’s Witnesses for practicing their faith is unacceptable, especially since they have already endured more than 2 yrs in pretrial detention.”
Separately, USCIRF Commissioner Susie Gelman stated, “In 2023, Russian authorities sentenced more than 40 Jehovah’s Witnesses to prison on bogus extremism charges. Nearly 150 are now imprisoned, detained or under house arrest. USCIRF calls for their release & an end to their prosecution.”
According to statements launched by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mr. Sviridov denied costs of extremism, however somewhat stated members of the group had been taught “to show love to people, to maintain good relations with others, to settle differences, to treat everyone with an open mind, to show hospitality.”
Mr. Pike, who has two younger daughters, stated, “There can be no question of hatred for people or a sense of superiority over anyone. This is contrary to the essence of kindness and virtue. This would not be a manifestation of love for God and people. This is not the Christian way.”
And Mr. Ruymyantsev stated he feels his “religious beliefs benefit society and the state, because I live in harmony with the words: ‘Let everyone not achieve his own, but what benefits the other.’”
Russia banned the U.S.-based non secular group in 2017 as an “extremist” group, however the European Court of Human Rights declared the ban illegal in 2022. The court docket ordered the Russian Federation both to return properties confiscated from the group or pay $63.7 million in compensation and $3.7 million in damages.
An announcement from the group on Wednesday stated Russian authorities had charged or investigated over 790 Witnesses, of which 205 are women and men over 60 years outdated; an 85-year-old member was the oldest charged.
Russian police and the FSB raided 2,059 houses of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2023, the group stated, and greater than 500 are on a “watch list” of extremists and terrorists. The public itemizing has prevented Witnesses from getting jobs or having their financial institution accounts blocked.
Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman Jarrod Lopes, talking from the group’s Tuxedo Park, New York, headquarters, stated “Russia continues to shamelessly misemploy its anti-extremist legislation to ban, imprison, and at times beat and torture Jehovah’s Witnesses. Doling out an average of six years in prison simply for peaceful Christian worship, Russia’s legal system has become a cathedral of what it hates — extremism.”
