Irina Mikhaylenko from Chelyabinsk Will Pay a Fine for Her Faith. "I'm On Trial Only Because I'm One of Jehovah's Witnesses"

On April 25, 2023, Irina Mikhaylenko, 54, one of Jehovah's Witnesses from Chelyabinsk, was fined 120,000 rubles. The judge of the Metallurgicheskiy District Court, Lyudmila Blagodyr, considered that the believer should be held accountable simply for peacefully practicing her religion.

The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed. Mikhailenko insists on her complete innocence. In her final statement, she said: “I did not commit any crimes. On the contrary, in this case my rights are violated — I am deprived of the guaranteed right to profess and spread my faith.”

In March 2019, Irina Mikhaylenko came under a wave of searches conducted as part of a criminal case against Valentina Suvorova. Two years later, she herself was suspected of participating in extremist activity: a second search was carried out in Mikhaylenko’s house. During 11 months the investigation was carried out by the third department for the Investigation of particularly important cases of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Chelyabinsk Region. The investigation found that Irina Mikhaylenko was guilty of "directly participating and personally speaking at... religious meetings", singing songs and saying prayers. On July 29, 2022, the case went to court.

“Is there evidence of my extremism, that is, hatred, enmity, violence?”, asked the believer at one of the hearings. “There is neither any action nor a single phrase or word in the 20 volumes of the criminal case. Moreover, most of the documents in the case have nothing to do with me”. An examination requested by the investigator confirmed that there were no signs of inciting hostility or hatred in the materials received from the meetings of the believers. There are no victims or facts of illegal activity in the case.

The ruling of the ECHR regarding the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia states that “the right to manifest one’s religion “in community with others” has always been regarded as an essential part of the freedom of religion” (§ 268). Despite this, the persecution of believers continues. In the Chelyabinsk region, the sentences against 7 Jehovah's Witnesses have already entered into force.