Vera Semicheva
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Sentence unknown
- Date of verdict
- 2024-04-12
- Region
- Kemerovo Oblast
- City
- Prokopyevsk
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as persecuted for exercising freedom of religionby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
In 2020, within the case against Andrei Vlasov, the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Prokopyevsk were searched, including the home of the spouses Yuri and Elena Chernykh, parents of a minor son. In May 2023, another criminal case was initiated in Prokopyevsk against unidentified persons. Three months later, an investigator of the Kemerovo Oblast Police department brought in Elena Chernykh and pensioner Vera Semicheva as defendants for conducting "joint worship...based on the Holy Scriptures (the Bible)." Both women signed a recognizance not to leave. The court trial started in September 2023. On 12 April 2024, a sentence to Semicheva was issued; details are unknown.
Others charged under Article 282.2 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
What we write about political persecution
Recent material from this section. This is section navigation — the articles below are not about this person.
- 2026-09-04Georgia court clears extradition of Fugal ally to Russia
- 2026-09-04Russia labels Novaya Gazeta a 'foreign agent,' adds over 100 affiliated names
- 2026-09-04Russian court sentences hostage-takers from Rostov detention center to up to 29 years
- 2026-09-04Two Yabloko Duma candidates detained in Moscow two days before vote
- 2026-09-03British man says Russian police beat him, jumped on his head at station in Yessentuki
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.