Jehovah's Witnesses say six believers sentenced in Russia on evidence from 'bereaved' informant

Six Jehovah's Witnesses have been convicted of "extremist" ​activity in Russia after being entrapped by an ​informant of the FSB security ‌service who ​posed as a bereaved woman seeking comfort in religion, a spokesperson for the faith group said on Tuesday.

Two of the accused, Zaur Murtuzov and ‌Darya Petrochenko, were sentenced last week to five years each in a penal colony. Four other women received compulsory labour sentences of up to four years. The Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian movement known for door-to-door evangelism and a ‌literal approach to studying the Bible. Russia banned them in 2017 as an "extremist organisation".

The European Court of ‌Human Rights ruled in 2022 that the ban was unlawful. It has been similarly condemned by the U.N. Human Rights Committee. Jarrod Lopes, a New York-based spokesperson, said the latest case was based on testimony from a woman who had infiltrated the group in 2022 ⁠after ​picking up a card ⁠in a cemetery that contained the message "There is Hope" and gave contact information.

The woman said she had suffered a bereavement and expressed interest ⁠in the Bible. Over the next two years she cultivated the group of believers, secretly recording conversations with them and ​delivering them to the FSB, Lopes said. He said the exploitation of the group's kindness to ⁠a stranger proved "how wrong it is to criminalize a faith that makes people good neighbors".

Before being sentenced, Petrochenko told the court that ⁠she was ​innocent, did not regret her actions and had not lost her faith in people. "I genuinely wanted to support a person who had supposedly lost a loved one. I asked nothing of her, nor ⁠did I offer her anything... I caused no harm to her or to the constitutional order," she said.

According to ⁠the Jehovah's Witnesses, ⁠the FSB has frequently used informants to infiltrate prayer cells and make secret recordings in order to obtain evidence for prosecutions. Lopes said 174 Witnesses — 159 men and ‌15 women — ‌are currently in prison in Russia.