European Court of Human Rights

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UkraineConfirmed

Ukraine's Supreme Court releases a Jehovah's Witness from prison — and confirms that religious belief is no defence to refusing mobilisation

Illustration: an open prison door on an empty corridor behind a bench rail holding a closed case file, a folded notice and balanced scales

In a final ruling of 19 August 2026, a panel of the Cassation Criminal Court upheld the conviction of a baptised Witness deacon under Article 336 for refusing a call-up notice, then released him from serving his three-year term on two years' probation. The precedent it applied — that belief is no answer to a mobilisation charge — is one two Supreme Court judges dissented from, that panels of the court tried three times to reopen, and whose underlying statutes four constitutional complaints were challenging as of the Court's notice of 6 May 2026. The same precedent holds that call-up during mobilisation does not cancel an objector's right to refuse to carry or use a weapon.

· August 19, 2026 · 14 min read

UkraineConfirmed

European rights court finds Ukraine never investigated whether a 2016 attack on two Jehovah's Witnesses was religiously motivated

Illustration: an empty doorstep with scattered pamphlets beside a closed case file marked with a stopped clock

In Barsuk and Gyl v. Ukraine, a unanimous Fifth Section Chamber held that Ukraine breached Article 3 and Article 9, each taken with Article 14, by describing the attacker's motive with a stock legal formula and letting the five-year prosecution deadline expire. The Court did not decide why the attack happened — only that Ukraine never seriously tried to find out. Each applicant was awarded EUR 4,000.

· July 9, 2026 · 17 min read

Kuzminsky District Court of MoscowConfirmed

Moscow Court Voids Pre-Ban Property Transfers, Hands 123 Jehovah's Witnesses Assets to the Russian State

Illustration: a stamped and struck-through stack of property deeds on a land register, with scattered land-parcel outlines on a faint map

The Kuzminsky District Court of Moscow granted a claim by Russia's Prosecutor General's Office on 31 July 2026, declaring void sixty donation agreements signed between August 2016 and early April 2017 and transferring 63 buildings and 60 land plots into state ownership. Prosecutors argued the transfers were made to keep the property from passing to the state when the organization was liquidated, and the court accepted that case; Kommersant and Pravo.ru report the defendants were Witness-linked entities in seven European countries and the United States, while other outlets described only a Swedish entity. Russian courts undid a Witness property transfer in much the same shape in 2017, against the organization's St Petersburg headquarters, and Russia has legislated against enforcing the European Court of Human Rights judgment that found the 2017 ban and liquidation unlawful. Jehovah's Witnesses have since responded, calling the confiscation defiance of that judgment, putting the assessed value of the 123 properties at about 415 million rubles, and saying the European entities that owned them were refused permission to take part in the 2017 liquidation proceedings.

· Updated August 9, 2026 · 9 min read

RussiaConfirmed

UN Human Rights Committee finds Russia violated the rights of 12 Jehovah's Witnesses in Ufa raids

Illustration: an open treaty volume beside a sealed document and a globe motif

The Committee's 13 March 2026 ruling found unlawful arrest, religious discrimination and denial of minority rights in a 2018 Ufa case, and ordered unspecified compensation. It also dismissed several claims, refused an earlier emergency request, and has no power to enforce anything.

· March 13, 2026 · 13 min read