RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Jehovah's Witness woman's legal appeal proves costly

APPEALS COURT IN BIROBIDZHAN TOUGHENS SENTENCE FOR JEHOVAH'S WITNESS

Credo.Press, 13 May 2021

 

A court in the Jewish autonomous oblast made the sentence more severe for the Jehovah's Witness Svetlana Monis, who had previously been found guilty of extremism because of her faith in Jehovah. She was given a punishment in the form of a suspended sentence of 2.5 years with a probation of two years, a correspondent for the portal Credo.Press reports, citing a source within the Russian Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

The believer also was sentenced to one year of restricted liberty. She does not have the right to change her place of residence, she must report monthly to the Federal Penitentiary Service, and she cannot go beyond boundaries established by the service.

 

The sentence has taken legal effect. The believer still insists on her innocence. She has the right to appeal the verdict at the cassation level and also in international courts.

 

On 15 February, the judge in the first instance of the Birobidzhan district court, Vladimir Mikhalev, found the believer guilty of participating in activity of a forbidden organization and sentenced her to a fine of 10,000 rubles. Despite the leniency of the sentence in the court of the first instance, Svetlana Monis appealed it.

 

The prosecution of the 44-year-old Svetlana Monis, a teacher of foreign languages, began a year and four months after a criminal case was opened against her husband, Alam Aliev, who was charged on the basis of part 1 of the same article. Alongside the judicial hearings, Svenlana had to care for her elderly grandmother, who was living alone.

 

In April 2017, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that all 396 religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in the R.F. were extremist and it liquidated them. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 May 2021)


Background article:
Court activity in Jewish region against Jehovah's Witnesses continues
February 16, 2021


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