Disabled Person of Group II Sentenced to Imprisonment in Karachay-Cherkessia

On June 23, 2025, the Cherkessk City Court sent Vladimir Fomin, 45, to a penal colony for 4 years and 6 months. Judge Sapar Baychorov found the believer guilty of extremism because of talking about the Bible with a local resident. Prior to the verdict, Fomin spent 1 year and 3 months in a pre-trial detention center.

At the age of 20, Vladimir became a victim of hatred on religious grounds. The believer was beaten right on the territory of the worship building by aggressive young people. The injuries eventually led to disability. In February 2024, the house of the Fomin family was searched. Vladimir was placed in a pre-trial detention center. In prison, the believer's chronic illnesses worsened, and he felt a shortage of prescribed medicines. During one of the court hearings, he even lost consciousness, so an ambulance had to be called.

Vladimir Fomin after his final statement in the courtroom

The reason for the criminal prosecution of Fomin was conversations about the Bible with a local resident Y. Oncheva in the house of Yelena Menchikova, another believer from Cherkessk, previously sentenced to 4.5 years of probation on similar charges. Later it became known that Oncheva, on the instructions of the FSB, kept a hidden audio recording of these conversations.

At one of the court hearings, Vladimir Fomin stated: "Despite the fact that it is not forbidden on the territory of the Russian Federation to believe in Jehovah God, the prosecution reveals my religious affiliation and calls it not religious affiliation . . . but by belonging to an organization recognized as extremist."

In Karachay-Cherkessia, a republic with a population of less than 500,000 people, 13 Jehovah's Witnesses have already faced criminal prosecution for their faith in recent years. In February 2025, the court sentenced one of them to a long prison term.