In Saransk, a major city in central Russia, two Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sentenced to six and a half and seven years in prison.

In Saransk, the Proletarsky District Court has sentenced two Jehovah’s Witnesses to prison: the believers, Mikhail Shevchuk and Aleksandr Neverov, were sentenced to six and a half years and seven years in prison respectively. This was reported by the portal “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.”

Both men were found guilty under the article on organising the activities of an extremist organisation (Part 1, Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The believers were taken into custody in the courtroom.

According to investigators, Shevchuk and Neverov organised the activities of a local Jehovah’s Witnesses cell from 2017 to 2023. The criminal case was initiated in the winter of 2023, following mass searches and detentions among believers. Shevchuk and Neverov were initially sent to a pre-trial detention centre for two and a half months, then placed under house arrest for three months, and later subject to restrictions on certain activities. According to Neverov, during his time under house arrest, his home was bugged.

Both Shevchuk and Neverov have already faced persecution within their families. In 2019, in Mordovia (a region in central Russia), a criminal case was brought against seven Jehovah’s Witnesses—including Shevchuk’s younger brother, Aleksandr, and Neverov’s stepbrother, Vladimir Atryakhin. Aleksandr Shevchuk was sentenced to two years in a penal colony under the article on participating in the activities of an extremist organisation (Part 2, Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code); Atryakhin was sentenced to six years for organising the activities of such an organisation.

As highlighted by the organisation monitoring the persecution of believers in Russia, Mikhail Shevchuk is a fourth-generation Jehovah’s Witness. In the 1940s, his great-grandparents were repressed, receiving prison sentences followed by exile. The believers were later rehabilitated.

• In 2017, the Supreme Court recognised the “Jehovah’s Witnesses Administrative Centre in Russia” as an extremist organisation, liquidated it, and banned its activities throughout Russia. All Jehovah’s Witnesses organisations were added to the list of banned organisations, after which a wave of criminal cases against believers began. Rosfinmonitoring added hundreds of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses to the register of extremists and terrorists. The majority of people listed are believers aged between 40 and 60.