An Appeal in Smolensk Upheld the Sentence of Maria Troshina and Natalia Sorokina — 6 Years Suspended for Believing in Jehovah God

On September 15, 2021, the Smolensk Regional Court upheld the sentence handed down to Jehovah's Witnesses Maria Troshina and Nataliya Sorokina. They were sentenced to 6 years probation for allegedly organizing the activities of an extremist organization. The verdict has entered into force. The women have already spent more than six months in pre-trial detention and the same amount under house arrest.

The prosecutor requested a severe punishment for the believers in the form of long-term imprisonment in a general regime colony: for Troshina - for 6 years and 8 months, for Sorokina - for 6 years and 6 months. On April 22, 2021, the judge of the Sychevsky District Court of the Smolensk Region, Arkady Likhachev, sentenced them to 6 years of suspended imprisonment with a probation period of 3 years. The Sychevsky District Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal against the verdict, but later withdrew it. Believers continue to insist on their innocence, they hoped that the court of appeal would commute or overturn the sentence. They have the right to appeal against it in cassation, as well as in international instances.

Sorokina and Troshina were detained on October 7, 2018, after a raid on the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Smolensk region, in which officers from the FSB, the Center for Countering Extremism, and SOBR participated. Initially, the women were charged with participating in the activities of a banned organization, but in the summer of 2019 the charge was reclassified into organizing the activities of an extremist organization.

During the judicial interrogation, the FSB officers who participated in the raids could not repeat their testimony, as they could not remember it. The judge had to read this information from the criminal case. In the materials of the case, the investigation called the women members of a certain "foreign religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses." At one of the hearings, the prosecutor argued that the believers, "realizing the public danger," were hiding from the state, which the defendants denied.

The trial in the court of first instance lasted about a year and a half. As a result of the hearings, Troshina and Sorokin did not understand exactly what extremist actions they committed, remaining believers and exercising their right to freedom of religion.

"I am guided in my life by the laws from the Bible," said Maria Troshina in her last word in the court of appeal.- Loving my neighbor, I try to do everything possible to help, not harm. This was confirmed by all prosecution witnesses. In their testimonies, they said that Sorokina and I did not incite social, racial, national, religious discord. They didn't say that one person is better than another just because he professes a religion."

Speaking at the Court of Appeal, Nataliya Sorokina drew attention to the distortion of concepts by the court of first instance: "Peaceful and calm friendly meetings have turned into a 'continuation of extremist activity,' conversations about faith have turned into 'persuasion and recruitment.'"

A total of 8 Jehovah's Witnesses from the Smolensk region have been prosecuted. One of them, Viktor Malkov, died while under investigation. Three more were sentenced to suspended sentences ranging from 6 to 6.5 years.

The Russian government has repeatedly stated that the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses is not prohibited in Russia. In addition, Russian and foreign human rights activists unanimously condemn the actions of the authorities against Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation.