Court in Vladivostok Passed Verdict in Case of Seven of Jehovah's Witnesses. Two Men Received Prison Terms

On February 3, 2025, the Pervorechenskiy District Court sentenced Jehovah's Witnesses from Vladivostok to various terms, even up to 7 years imprisonment. Judge Galina Vasilkevich deemed peaceful religious activity to be extremism. Previously the husband of one of the defendants, Dmitriy Barmakin, was sentenced to 8 years in a penal colony on similar charges.

Igor Lonchakov was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, Yuriy Redozubov — to 6.5 years. The women were given suspended sentences: Yekaterina Treguba and Lyudviga Katanaeva — 3 years and 4 months each with a 3-year probation period; Yelena Barmakina, Yelena Tsorn and 65-year-old Nina Astvatsaturova — 3 years each with a 3-year probation period.

This case is one of the longest in the history of prosecuting Jehovah's Witnesses in modern Russia. Back in the fall of 2017, undercover FSB agent, Yekaterina Petrova, began secretly recording meetings for worship. Yelena Barmakina was the first to be prosecuted. Later, her case was combined with cases against nine of her fellow believers.

The Investigative Committee charged Yuriy Redozubov and Igor Lonchakov with organizing the activity of an extremist organization, and Yelena Barmakina, Yelena Tsorn, Nina Astvatsaturova, Lyudviga Katanaeva, Yekaterina Treguba, Alibek Kartayganov and the couple Roman and Violetta Verigin with participating in its activity. In 2023, the consideration of the case against Kartayganov and the Verigins was paused.

Yelena Barmakina twice defended her right to freedom of religion in court. In 2020, the court returned her case to the prosecutor, and in 2022 she was brought to trial again along with the other believers. Speaking during the closing arguments, she said: "A new charge has been brought against me, but in fact its plot and description of the criminal act imputed to me have not changed. I am charged with all the same actions as before: reading and discussing texts from the Bible... participating in singing religious songs, praying and watching videos of talks." Nina Astvatsaturova commented on the charges: "During these meetings, there were no extremist calls for illegal actions against anyone."

Simultaneously with the case of Yelena and her fellow believers, the Pervorechenskiy District Court considered the case of her husband, Dmitriy Barmakin, who was initially acquitted, but later sent to a penal colony. He is serving his sentence in the Samara Region, 7,500 kilometers from Vladivostok.