08:33, 28 December 2018

In KBR, Jehovah's Witness sentenced to correctional labour

Arkadya (Arkady) Akopyan. Photo from the website of the Jehovah's Witnesses (an organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) https://jw-russia.org/prisoners/akopian.html

The court has found a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses (an organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) from the city of Prokhladny guilty of extremism and sentenced him to 120 hours of compulsory work.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 21, the prosecutor demanded two years of conditional imprisonment for the 70-year-old Arkady Akopyan.

The accusation against Akopyan was built on testimonies of six people, who stated that they had heard that he spoke disrespectfully about Muslims and Orthodox priests.

A criminal case was opened against him about inciting hatred and hostility. The court has believed the prosecution witnesses, who said they were distributing brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses.

"Jehovah's Witnesses never instruct outsiders to distribute our liturgical literature ... We are deeply grieved by the stigma of a criminal that the judge has imposed on a decent person," said Yaroslav Sivulsky, a member of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 27, 2018 at 08:05 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.