In Vladivostok, the Appeal Upheld Liya Maltseva's Sentence for Professing the Faith of Jehovah's Witnesses

On November 1, 2022, the Primorye Territory Court in Vladivostok upheld the sentence for Liya Maltseva from the town of Partizansk. This 53-year-old woman with a group II disability was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months of suspended sentence for participating in the activities of an extremist organization. This is how the court regarded the peaceful profession of faith in Jehovah God.

The verdict has entered into force. The believer still insists on her innocence. She has the right to appeal the verdict in cassation.

In the Court of Appeal, Liya Maltseva drew attention to the fact that not a single statement or action of hers, in which hatred, violence or enmity was manifested, was presented to the court of lower instance. She stressed: "The State Prosecution has not demonstrated that I participated in any socially dangerous activity. All the evidence examined in the trial court only shows that I discussed the Bible and its teachings with other people. I participated in a peaceful worship service, where I sang songs, listened to a Bible speech, studied a religious text that was not included in the federal list of extremist materials. All this was of an exclusively peaceful nature".

The believer has been under house arrest since August 2020. Then a search was conducted in her apartment, and Maltseva herself was subjected to a psychiatric examination, for which she had to go to Ussuriysk, 200 km from home. The basis of the criminal case was the testimony of one of the participants in the religious service, who conducted covert videotaping of the meetings of believers.

In Primorye Territory, criminal cases were opened on similar charges against 44 other people. The sentences for 13 of them have already entered into force.