Jehovah’s Witness from Kursk has been released

Jehovah’s Witness Oksana Chausova, sentenced to one year and ten months in a general regime penal colony, has been released. This was reported by the portal “Jehovah’s Witnesses. Legal Situation in Russia.”

Before her release, the believer was held in Correctional Colony No. 6 in Oryol region, a province south-west of Moscow. She was released on 29 August. According to her fellow believers, she spent a total of 751 days under various forms of restriction of liberty, including a penal colony, pre-trial detention centre, house arrest, and bans on certain activities.

The woman said that conditions in the pre-trial detention centre were very dirty and cold, and she had to sleep in her jacket. After being transferred to the colony, she faced bullying from other inmates. “I didn’t expect that. Intellectually, I understood that, objectively, nothing particularly bad had happened, but I couldn’t control my emotions and kept crying all the time,” the portal quotes her as saying.

In December 2024, Oksana Chausova and her spouse Dmitry Chausov were found guilty under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organisation (part 2, article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). They were sentenced to two and a half years each in a penal colony. A third Jehovah’s Witness, Nikolai Kupriyansky, was sentenced to six years in a colony under the article on organising the activities of an extremist organisation (part 1, article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). Later, a court reduced their sentences: the Chausovs received one year and ten months each, and Kupriyansky received four and a half years in a colony.

The three Jehovah’s Witnesses from Kursk region, a region in western Russia, were detained in August 2023. During a search, Bibles, greeting cards, a Latvian passport, copies of the religious newspaper “The Watchtower,” and DVDs containing Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teachings in Russian and Russian Sign Language were seized from them. They were accused of holding religious meetings and services.

Dmitry Chausov was released after his sentence was reduced, as he had already spent enough time in pre-trial detention. Oksana Chausova remained in the colony for about a month. During the investigation and court proceedings, the couple often had no opportunity to see each other.

“For a long time, I couldn’t write to or see my husband. Our first meeting took place at a joint court hearing almost five months after our arrest. Oh, what a meeting that was… And then—another two months of complete silence. I can’t put this pain into words,” Chausova is quoted as saying by the portal “Jehovah’s Witnesses. Legal Situation in Russia.”