A Court Handed Crimea-Based Artyom Shabliy a Two-Year Suspended Sentenced for Holding Bible Discussions

On February 16, 2022, the judge of the Kerch City Court of the Republic of Crimea, Irina Altanets, sentenced one of Jehovah's Witnesses, Artem Shabliy, to 2 years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 3 years, finding him guilty of participating in the activities of an extremist organization.

In the spring of 2020, the investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Valery Zarubin, opened a criminal case against Artem Shabliy, the father of 2 young children, under part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation in the activities of an extremist organization). At the same time, a raid on Jehovah's Witnesses took place in Kerch. During a search in Shabliy's house, the security forces broke the windows, because of which a 4-year-old son of the believer cut his legs on splinters. Artem himself was kept undressed in the cold for several hours, as a result of which he fell ill.

After the search and interrogation, the believer spent the night in a temporary detention center. The investigator persuaded Artem Shabliy to self-incriminate, but he refused and on the third day he was allowed to go home on bail.

According to the investigation, the “extremism” of the builder from Kerch consisted in the fact that he “pointed to the correctness, value, usefulness of the proposed views, that is, he disseminated and explained the views and ideas of Jehovah’s Witnesses ... praised, justified and approved the ideology of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” The accusation was based on video recordings of conversations on religious topics, which were made by an I. Dukhanin, who portrayed an interest in the Bible.

Artem Shabliy pleaded not guilty to extremism and may appeal the verdict. In his last word, he said: “It is impossible for me to even imagine that I can commit any active actions, the purpose of which is to incite racial, national and religious hatred. In fact, for me, as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, such goals as the forcible change of the foundations of the constitutional order and the threat to the security of Russia are completely unacceptable.”

Crimean courts have already sent four Jehovah's Witnesses to penal colonies for terms ranging from 6 to 6.5 years. At the same time, according to the clarification of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia, religious meetings and conversations about the Bible cannot in themselves be considered extremism. On February 9, 2022, Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev further emphasized this idea: “Actions that do not contain signs of extremism and consist solely in exercising the right to freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, including through the performance of religious services and ceremonies, do not constitute a crime.”