Three of eight Baptists from Saki in western Crimea who refused to pay fines for holding a public religious meeting were, in October 2015, sentenced to 20 hours of community service each.
Five fines were imposed by Judge Irina Shevchenko without a formal court hearing. A fine of about six weeks’ average local wages has been ordered to be automatically deducted from the wages of another Baptist. Items from the homes of four others have been identified for possible seizure. Council of Churches Baptists refuse to pay fines imposed for exercising their freedom of religion or belief. ‘They didn’t pay the fines as to do so would be to admit that they did something wrong’, said a church member.
January deadline
However, Crimea’s Supreme Court has overturned September 2015 fines imposed on two Jehovah’s Witnesses distributing religious literature. Meanwhile, after the deadline for all religious communities to re-register with the Russian Justice Ministry expired on 1 January 2016, only about 400 religious organisations have been re-registered. Over 1,100 religious communities which had legal status under Ukrainian law no longer have legal status under Russian law.
