In Khakasia, a 70-year-old Woman Was Sentenced to 2 Years in a Penal Colony for Faith. Her Son Was sentenced to 6 Years in a Colony. They Are Jehovah's Witnesses

On February 24, 2021, Abakan city court passed an unprecedentedly cruel sentence: for the first time a woman, who is also elderly, was sentenced to imprisonment. For the first time, a person is imprisoned under the milder part of article 282.2 (participation in a banned organization) of the RF Criminal Code. This is the case of Valentina Baranovskaya.

Her son, Roman Baranovskiy, was sentenced to 6 years in prison under a stricter part of Article 282.2 of the RF Criminal Code (organization of activities of a banned organization). The criminal case was based on recordings of conversations between believers, from which it follows that they practice the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. There are no extremist statements in their conversations. There are no victims in the case.

The verdict was handed down by Judge Elena Shcherbakova. The verdict did not come into force; it will be appealed. Both believers insisted on their complete innocence. After the verdict was pronounced, both believers were taken into custody. They will be placed in the SIZO.

In the summer of 2020, just before the court hearings began, Valentina was diagnosed with cerebral infarction or ischemic stroke. The defendant, according to doctors' estimates, was in the hospital in moderate condition. Valentina will be 70 years old in April 2021.

Such a cruel punishment was recommended by the state prosecutor, Svetlana Anatolievna Shestakova of the Abakan prosecutor's office. On February 1, 2021, during the debate, she asked to sentence Roman Baranovskiy to 8 years in prison, while for Valentina Baranovskaya the prosecutor recommended 5 years in a penal colony.

In reply to the charges of "harming people and the state" Valentina answered in her last statement that the Bible helped her to become peaceful, fair, loving people and God and taught her to respect the authorities and their laws. She stressed that despite the ban of the legal entity - the local religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses of Abakan (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation from 20.04.2017) - everyone has the right to practice their religion according to Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Roman Baranovsky said in his last statement: "I am accused, in fact, of confession of faith, because exactly the actions of confession of faith, according to the prosecution, are evidence of my illegal activities, namely: singing songs glorifying God, praying together and discussing the Bible in my home with my friends and acquaintances, and the fact that we agreed to meet with each other for this purpose. And this is in the 21st century! Is this really possible? How could it undermine the constitutional order of our country?"

On April 10, 2019, armed law enforcement officers broke into the home of Roman and his mother Valentina.

Shortly before that, on March 21, 2019, A. Pachuev, a senior investigator of the Investigative Department for the city of Abakan of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Republic of Khakassia initiated a criminal case against the believers under Article 282.2 part 1 of the RF Criminal Code (organization of activities of a banned organization). Later Valentina's indictment was lowered to part 2 of Article 282.2 of the RF Criminal Code (organization of activity of a forbidden organization). Later Valentina's accusation was downgraded to part 2 Article 282.2 (participation in the activities of a liquidated organization) of the RF Criminal Code.

All in all, there are two criminal cases pending in the Republic of Khakasia. The second case, in which six believers from Abakan were involved, was separated from the Baranovskiys’ case.

The Baranovskiys' case was being investigated for one year and two months prior to coming to the Abakan city court on June 15, 2020.

The indictment revealed violations of the requirements of criminal procedural law, due to which the prosecutor returned the case to investigator O. Ermakova to "rewrite the indictment and eliminate the detected violations".

Before retiring in 2006, Valentina worked as an accountant and economist, while Roman did some finishing work. Their friends, colleagues, and relatives are perplexed as to how this peaceful and decent family can be accused of such monstrous things as extremism.

Russian and international legal scholars unanimously condemn the actions of the authorities against Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation.

For example, human rights activists from the international society Memorial highlighted the incompatibility between the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses and common sense: "It is absurd that Jehovah's Witnesses convicted under the Soviet regime are recognized as victims of political repression in accordance with the 1991 Federal Law on Rehabilitation - while they are simultaneously imprisoned as Jehovah's Witnesses today.