Sochi resident Danil Suvorov has been released from prison.

Danil Suvorov, a believer from Sochi who was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of extremism, was released in Mordovia.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in June 2023, a court in Sochi sentenced Jehovah's Witness* Danil Suvorov to six years in prison, finding him a member of an extremist organization. The defendant pleaded not guilty and stated that he had merely been discussing faith. In May 2024, the Krasnodar Regional Court upheld the sentence. In July of that year, Suvorov was transferred to a prison colony in Mordovia.

On April 7, 30-year-old Danil Suvorov was released from a penal colony in Mordovia. Despite serving his sentence 1,500 kilometers from home, many traveled from far away to greet him that day, according to a website covering the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses* in Russia.

Suvorov remained in the penal colony until his release, where he worked in a garment factory and had a reputation for being a conscientious worker. According to him, one of the convicted men said of Jehovah's Witnesses*: "You are the kind of people who definitely shouldn't be here," the publication states.

Danil Suvorov's mother visited him every three months, and friends wrote him letters regularly. "The letters encouraged me, and I encouraged others. It helped me live, stay motivated, and keep busy. I sent many bags of letters home... Without the help of my friends, I wouldn't have even had something to eat," he said after his release.

Upon his return to Sochi, Suvorov's freedom will be restricted for another year and a half, the publication notes.

As a reminder, Suvorov's case was based on the testimony of a man named Filatov, who in 2020 called Danil himself and asked for a "Bible study." Suvorov told the court that this was a casual, friendly conversation. "You could see for yourself, by watching the video recordings, that I never invited him to become a member of any organization—the Administrative Center or other legal entities. I still can't understand what was extremist about that, and at what point did our conversations [with Filatov] turn into an organization liquidated by a court decision," the defendant said.

Back in October 2021, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that individual or collective religious practice, religious rites, and ceremonies in themselves should not be considered the activity of an extremist organization unless they contain elements of extremism. However, in practice, state prosecutors ignore this decision.

On April 20, 2017, following a lawsuit from the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court of Russia designated the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia* and its 395 branches as extremist organizations, banning their activities. The "Caucasian Knot" covers the consequences of this ban on the thematic page "The Ministry of Justice against Jehovah's Witnesses*".

* 396 Russian Jehovah's Witness organizations have been designated as extremist, and their activities in Russia have been banned by court order.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.