Viktoriya Verkhoturova, a Nurse from Nizhny Novgorod, Sentenced to 4 Years of Suspended Term for her Faith in Jehovah

On November 29, 2021, Viktor Yakovlev, judge of the Prioksky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod, sentenced 45-year-old Viktoriya Verkhoturova for allegedly participating in the activities of a banned organization.

The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed. The believer insists on her complete innocence. Although there is not a single victim in the case, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence the woman to 4.5 years in a penal colony.

Victoria has elderly parents. She is very worried about how worries about her daughter will affect their health. In the hospital where Verkhoturova works, there have recently been many patients with complications after covid. Due to the heavy workload, it is always difficult for her to ask for court hearings.

Addressing the court with the last word, the believer said: "I am accused of a serious crime that I did not commit, namely, participation in the activities of an extremist organization. And my whole 'crime' is simply that I call myself one of Jehovah's Witnesses." She added: "As soon as we get together to sing songs, read the Bible, and that's it, are we criminals? Are we going back to medieval Europe when the Holy Inquisition burned people for reading the Bible?"

In the summer of 2019, armed security forces broke into the house of Viktoria and her husband, Sergey. During the search, they threatened the woman with "terrible conditions in prison, where her psyche will suffer," trying to force her to cooperate with the investigation.

On March 26, 2020, investigator Oleg Makerov opened a criminal case against the believer under Part 2 of Article 282. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation in the activities of an extremist organization).

The investigation took 8 months, although in fact it began back in 2018, when law enforcement officers organized surveillance of the Verkhoturov spouses. The special services installed a hidden video camera in the believers' apartment and listened to their telephone conversations. The indictment stated that Verkhoturova's participation in the activities of a banned religious organization "was expressed in participation in meetings, religious speeches and services at them, and the implementation of preaching activities." The accusation was also based on the testimony of two secret witnesses.

On November 30, 2020, the case was submitted to the Prioksky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod. Consideration of the case in court took exactly 1 year. At the meetings, the content of the videos, which depicted how believers discuss the Bible together, was analyzed in detail. At the same time, the prosecution did not provide facts of illegal actions on the part of Verkhoturova. "She sang songs. [...] She did certain rituals: she got up, sat down, "one of the prosecution witnesses answered the question at the trial about what exactly Viktoria's participation in extremist activities was expressed in.

Viktoriya Verkhoturova became the fifth Jehovah's Witness in the Nizhny Novgorod region convicted of religious beliefs. A month earlier, three peaceful believers from the town of Pavlovo had been sentenced to 3 years of suspended imprisonment. Sergey Verkhoturov, Victoria's husband, was also prosecuted by law enforcement officers. On March 5, 2021, the same Prioksky District Court found him guilty of organizing extremist activities and imposed a 6-year suspended sentence.

The religious principles that guide the lives of Jehovah's Witnesses reject extremism, violence and aggression in any form against other people. Believers do not consider themselves entitled to speak out for the purpose of political reforms. Their peacefulness and respect for the laws of the state are known all over the world. On October 28, 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that the divine services of Jehovah's Witnesses, their joint rituals and ceremonies do not in themselves constitute a crime under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, despite the liquidation of their legal entities.