Evgeny Yelin
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Ban on activity, Suspended prison sentence, Restriction of liberty
- Sentence
- 6 years 6 months
- Date of verdict
- 2022-01-30
- Region
- Sakhalin Oblast
- City
- Nevelsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as persecuted for exercising freedom of religionby Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, 11 December 2020
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
On 10 December 2019, a criminal case was opened against Yelin for organising activities of an extremist organisation in connection with involvement in the activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses community. Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely because of religious activities - holding meetings and worship services, engaging new supporters. On 31 January 2022, he was sentenced to six and a half years' suspended sentence.
In the 1990s was sentenced to two years in prison for refusing to take up arms. Later amnestied.
Others charged under Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
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Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database
Published under CC BY 3.0. The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info; FACTUM relays their assessment and makes none of its own.
OVD-Info has been designated an «extremist» organisation in Russia — by decision of the Russian authorities, like other independent human rights and media projects.