A seriously ill Jehovah’s Witness has been sentenced to seven years in prison

Samvel Babayan, a 53-year-old Jehovah’s Witness from Samara, has been sentenced to seven years in prison. This was reported by a portal covering the persecution of believers from this faith.

Since September last year, the believer has been held in a pre-trial detention facility, despite his serious health condition: he has been diagnosed with multiple internal illnesses, including a tumour. “Over this year, I’ve had hardly any help. I spend all my time in the cell. There’s no opportunity to go for a walk, nothing at all… In this state, if it weren’t for my faith, if I didn’t receive support from outside, I would have died long ago,” he said.

For a long time, Babayan could only communicate with his wife in court and through letters; visits were forbidden. “He used to spend a lot of time with our son and now he misses him terribly. He really needs support from his family, but they have deprived him of it,” his wife shared.