Another Sentence for Faith in Kursk: Two Spouses and Another Jehovah's Witness Sent to Colony

On December 2, 2024, Margarita Dyadyusheva, judge of the Leninsky District Court of Kursk, sentenced three of Jehovah's Witnesses: Nikolay Kupriyansky received 6 years in a penal colony, spouses Dmitriy and Oksana Chausov — 2 and a half years. The believers were taken into custody in the courtroom.

The criminal prosecution of Kupriyansky and the Chausovs began with searches in the summer of 2023. They were led by Maksim Zaitsev, an investigator of the FSB Directorate for the Kursk region, who had previously led a case against five other Jehovah's Witnesses from Kursk. Dmitriy Chausov was sent to a pre-trial detention center, which is why he had to interrupt the treatment of a serious illness. At the same time, the couple lost their jobs. Six months later, the court placed Dmitriy under house arrest, but due to the ban on communicating with the defendants in the case, he was separated from his wife for more than a year. All three believers spent between 6 and 15 months under house arrest.

In June 2024, the case went to court. The guilty verdict was based, among other things, on the testimony of a witness who spoke in court in a similar case against five believers. For discussing the Bible among friends, the prosecutor asked for 7 years in a general regime colony for Kupriyansky and 3 years in a general regime colony for the Chausovs. The defendants pleaded not guilty and can appeal the verdict.