In Primorye, Galina Kobeleva, 66, Received a Six-Year Suspended Sentence for Practicing the Religion of Jehovah's Witnesses

On October 20, 2022, the judge of the Lesozavodskiy District Court of the Primorye Territory Sergey Galayuda found Galina Kobeleva guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization only because of her religion and sentenced her to 6 years suspended sentemce—this is exactly the punishment requested by the prosecutor.

In court, the believer said, “I still insist that I did not commit any crime. My religious activity was not a continuation of the activities of a liquidated legal entity, but a way of confessing my faith.” The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed.

On May 12, 2020, a wave of searches took place in the city of Lesozavodsk, as a result of which four Jehovah's Witnesses—Yevgeniy Grinenko, Svetlana Efremova, Galina Kobeleva, and her son Sergei—became defendants in a criminal case for their faith. In August 2021, due to Galina's illness, her case was separated into a separate proceeding. According to the investigation, the believer was guilty of “assisting Y. A. Grinenko in organizing meetings of the LRO [local religious organization] of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Lesozavodsk, acting as a coordinator.” Galina Kobeleva was included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring, which made it difficult for her to get a livelihood.

In total, the Investigative Committee investigated the case for a year and five months, and in October 2021 it went to court. The hearings went on for almost a year. The accusation was largely based on the testimony of an infiltrated FSB agent, Vladislav Mrachko, who asked Galina to study the Bible with him, and also repeatedly expressed a desire to attend divine services. One of the security officials, detective Severin, stated in court that the reason for the operational actions against Kobeleva was her involvement in the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses.

In addition, the conducted psychological-linguistic-religious examination was not objective. For example, Galina's everyday conversation about a meeting with a person at a store and a bus schedule was interpreted by experts as a discussion of "issues related to attending meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses held in small groups at different times in different districts of Lesozavodsk." In addition, the conclusion gave a legal assessment of the actions of Kobeleva, and this is exclusively within the competence of the court. 20 witnesses also refuted the charges brought against Galina Kobeleva. However, the court convicted the believer.

In Primorye, 41 Jehovah's Witnesses have already been prosecuted, 13 of them have been sentenced to suspended sentences for their religion.

The European Court of Human Rights considered the persecution of believers to be unjust, and all the persecution of the followers of this religion deployed in Russia was groundless.