Watchdog

A Siberian member of the Jehovah's Witnesses has been sentenced to six years for organizing activities of the religious group that Russia has labeled as extremist and banned in 2017.

Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States, told RFE/RL that the Lenin district court in the city of Novosibirsk sentenced 66-year-old Yury Savelyev on December 16 after finding him guilty of involvement in organizing of "activities of a banned group" in the city.

"[Savelyev's sentencing] defies international human rights norms, which is why the European Union, Britain, the United States, and the United Nations have repeatedly called on Russia to stop its systematic persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses," Lopes said in an e-mailed statement to RFE/RL.

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"Yet, Russian authorities have persisted, raiding over 440 homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses so far this year. Undeterred even by COVID-19, Russian authorities continue to unconscionably subject harmless believers, including older men like Yury, to the unsanitary and potentially deadly confines of prison.”

Savelyev, who was arrested and charged in November 2018, said in a statement in court last week that he is being prosecuted "simply for being a follower of the religious teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses."

Savelyev's sentencing comes less than three weeks after a court in another Siberian city, Omsk, sentenced another member of the religious group, 48-year-old Sergei Polyakov, to three years in prison on the same charge.

Polyakov's wife, Anastasia Polyakova, and two other Jehovah's Witnesses, Dinara Dyusekeyeva and Gaukhar Bektemirova, were convicted of "taking part in the activities of an extremist group" and handed suspended two-year prison terms each.

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For decades, the Jehovah's Witnesses have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin.

The Christian group is known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, rejection of military service, and not celebrating national and religious holidays or birthdays.

Since the faith was outlawed in Russia, many Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned in Russia and the Russia-annexed Ukrainian Black Sea Crimean Peninsula.

According to the group, 45 Jehovah's Witnesses are currently in prison, of whom 10 were convicted of extremism and 35 are in pretrial detention.

In September 2019, Washington banned two high-ranking regional officers from Russia's Investigative Committee from entering the United States over the alleged torture of seven detainees who are Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has recognized dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses who've been charged with or convicted of extremism as political prisoners.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on December 16 dismissed a joint investigation between Bellingcat and several media outlets that revealed evidence they say shows that the recent poisoning of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was carried out by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

"All this news is funny to read. But the manner in which this news is presented says only one thing: that our Western partners lack any ethical standards," Lavrov said during a visit to the Croatian capital, Zagreb, on December 16.

Several European laboratories in September concluded that Navalny, 44, was poisoned after he fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow in August. He was later airlifted to Berlin for treatment.

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A joint investigation by Bellingcat, a British-based open-source research group, and several media outlets published on December 14 concluded that FSB chemical weapons experts had followed Navalny for years, including on the day he was poisoned.

Citing “voluminous evidence in the form of telecoms and travel data,” the investigation, which included The Insider, a Russian investigative website, and Der Spiegel and CNN, said the poisoning of the Kremlin critic in the Siberian city of Tomsk appeared to have been in the works since at least early 2017.

The investigation revealed the names and photos of the alleged men who tailed Navalny, saying they were specialists in nerve agents and toxins, including the Soviet-designed poison Novichok, which European countries said was used against Navalny.

The investigation does not present any evidence of direct contact between Navalny and the agents.

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Moscow has denied any involvement in the Kremlin critic's illness.

Lavrov said the investigation by media outlets proved that Western countries "lack any skills for normal diplomatic work and an unwillingness to comply with international legal norms when it comes to establishing facts."

The European Union has slapped entry bans and bank account freezes on six people suspected of being responsible for Navalny’s poisoning, including FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov.

Navalny, who is currently in Germany where he is recovering, said his poisoning case was now solved, despite the absence of an official investigation in Russia.

Navalny, Russia's most prominent Kremlin critic, reiterated his accusation that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the poisoning attack on him.

The opposition leader has said he will return to Russia after making a full recovery in Germany.

With reporting by AFP