The prison term of a Jehovah’s Witness from Chelyabinsk, who had been sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony, has been reduced.

On 5 August, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court reduced the sentence of Jehovah’s Witness Andrei Shurygin, who had previously been sentenced to five and a half years in a general regime penal colony under the article on organising the activities of an extremist organisation (Part 1, Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the Sova research centre.

Shurygin’s sentence is now five years. The restriction of freedom, which had been set at one year by the court of first instance, was reduced to 10 months.

At the same time, the prosecution had asked the court to increase the sentence and impose seven years’ imprisonment on the believer. The prosecution had also insisted on this at the court of first instance.

A criminal case against Andrei Shurygin was opened in June 2023. Since then, he had been under a travel ban.

According to the investigation, from 2017 to 2022, he “conducted active missionary work, encouraged others to participate in the activities of the organisation, and distributed literature and informational materials of extremist content.”