29 September 2024, 21:56
Court upholds verdict to three Jehovah's Witnesses* from Novocherkassk
The Rostov Regional Court has upheld the sentence of Jehovah's Witnesses* Garegin Khachaturyan, Gevorg Eritsyan and Lyubov Galitsyna, who had been earlier found guilty within an extremism case.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 28, 2024, it became known that the court had sentenced the above three Jehovah's Witnesses* to various terms of freedom deprivation. They appealed the sentence at the Rostov Regional Court, but it left the Novocherkassk court ruling unchanged, the human rights project "OVD Info"** has reported.
Gevorg Eritsyan was sentenced to six years and two months, Khachaturyan – to 6.5 years of freedom deprivation. The Lyubov Galitsyna's prison term of two years and three months is considered served during her time at the SIZO (pre-trial prison), says the website that collects information on criminal cases against Russian Jehovah's Witnesses*.
According to investigators, Galitsyna took part in religious meetings and recruited people as new association members, while Khachaturyan and Eritsyan had committed the same actions, but were also organizers thereof.
*All the 396 Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision.
**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 28, 2024 at 08:41 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot
