Russian Jehovah's Witness jailed for managing extremist 'cells'

By Mark Trevelyan

A Jehovah's Witness in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk was sentenced to six years in prison on Thursday for organising the activities of an extremist group, the local interior ministry said.

Maxim Khamatshin, 28, is one of 850 Jehovah's Witnesses to be prosecuted in Russia in the eight years since it was banned. During that time, according to the faith group, 588 members were added to a federal register of extremists and terrorists and 460 had spent time in prison.

Khamatshin told the court before being sentenced: "It is a great honour for me to be a Jehovah's Witness. And no persecution can make me renounce my beliefs... No ban on legal entities can prevent a person from being a believer."

The interior ministry said the FSB security service, counter-extremism investigators and a special unit of the national guard had been involved in the investigation into Khamatshin. They seized computer hard drives, gadgets and handwritten notebooks with religious content, it said.

"The investigation proved that in the period from 2017 to 2022, the convicted person organized and managed the activities of a banned religious organization and territorial 'cells' included in its structure," the ministry said.

Religious life in Russia is dominated by the Russian Orthodox Church, which is championed by and loyal to President Vladimir Putin. Some Orthodox scholars view Jehovah's Witnesses, known for door-to-door preaching and refusing military service, as a "totalitarian sect."

Russia's Supreme Court designated the Jehovah's Witnesses as "extremist" in 2017, liquidating and banning their nearly 400 chapters across the country.

The longest sentences against members of the organisation - more than eight years - were handed out last year.

Last month, a 67-year-old Jehovah's Witness, Valeriy Baylo died less than a year into a 2.5-year sentence. The organisation said he had been denied medical treatment for almost a year.