Court of Appeal in Tatarstan Upholds the Verdict Against Three Jehovah's Witnesses
TatarstanOn November 1, 2023, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan upheld the sentence of the court of first instance — 2 years suspended for Tatyana Obizhestvit, 2.5 years suspended for Leysan Bochkareva and 3 years and 1 month in a penal colony for Andrey Bochkarev, who has already served this term in full while in pretrial detention.
The prosecutor considered the decision of the court of first instance too lenient and in March 2023 filed an appeal in which he asked the court to "toughen" the sentence for the believers, as well as to exclude mitigating circumstances from the verdict.
In Tatarstan, 13 Jehovah's Witnesses are prosecuted for their faith. One of them, Konstantin Sannikov, is serving his sentence in a penal colony. In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights found prosecutions on such grounds unlawful.