The Leninsky District Court of Novosibirsk has sentenced the leader of the local unit of Jehovah’s Witnesses, banned in Russia, to six years in a standard-security penitentiary, the Russian Investigative Committee’s regional branch said. The 66-year-old man was found guilty of organizing the extremist organization’s activities. “The court sentenced the defendant to six years in a standard-security penal colony,” it said. The court established that, between July 2017 and September 2018, the man used his apartment in the Leninsky District of Novosibirsk to hold religious meetings at which he oversaw the reading and discussion of extremist literature.
Justice Bhuyan Calls for Protection of Dissent and Personal Liberty
Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has expressed concern over the growing trend of treating peaceful dissent and ordinary actions as criminal offences. Speaking at a
