A Jehovah’s Witness with a disability from Karachay-Cherkessia, a region in the North Caucasus, has been sentenced to 4.5 years in a penal colony.

On 23 June, Cherkessk City Court sentenced Vladimir Fomin, a 45-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, to four years and six months in a penal colony under charges of participating in the activities of an extremist community (Part 2, Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) and recruiting into it (Part 1.1, Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the project “Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Legal Situation in Russia.”

The criminal case against Fomin was sparked by his conversation about the Bible with a local resident, Ye. Oncheva, at the home of another believer, Yelena Menchikova. Menchikova herself was given a suspended sentence of four and a half years on charges similar to those faced by Fomin.

The man was placed in a pretrial detention centre in February 2024 after his home was searched. It later became known that Oncheva, acting on instructions from the FSB, had secretly recorded her conversations with the accused.

Due to injuries sustained after being beaten at the age of 20, the man was assigned Group II disability status. His chronic health conditions worsened after being detained. During one of the hearings, the believer lost consciousness and an ambulance was called to the court as a result.

“Although believing in Jehovah God is not forbidden in the territory of the Russian Federation, the prosecution singles out my religious affiliation and calls it not religious affiliation …> but affiliation with an organisation recognised as extremist,” Vladimir Fomin stated in court.