To Leave the Terms Unchanged. In Khanty-Mansiysk, Appeal Hearings in the Case of Eighteen Surgut Jehovah's Witnesses Have Ended

On February 21, 2025, the Court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area upheld the verdict against a group of believers from Surgut. The panel of judges considered the case for more than 4 months. The suspended sentences imposed on the believers—from 3 years and 3 months to 7 years—came into force.

The case against Jehovah's Witnesses in Surgut is one of the largest and longest of its kind: the criminal prosecution affected 18 people and has been going on for more than 6 years.

The verdict of the first instance, handed down at the end of 2023, was appealed by both sides: state prosecutor Larysa Oniskevich considered the punishment "excessively lenient", and the defense sought to overturn the conviction. According to the lawyer, the decision of the court of first instance is unconstitutional. "The materials of the criminal case do not contain a single fact, not a single statement, not a single episode that would fit the criteria of extremist activity," one of the convicts, Vyacheslav Boronos, echoed the defense lawyer during the debate.

Another 9 believers in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area—Yugra faced criminal prosecution on similar grounds. Eric Patterson, executive vice president of the Religious Freedom Institute and former dean of Regent University's Robertson School of Government, said, "Russia's continuing persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses as 'extremists' who threaten Russia's national security is unfair and unwise. It contributes to an atmosphere of fear and social stagnation."