On January 21, 2021, the Obluchenskiy District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region convicted Sister Anastasiya Sycheva. She was issued a two-year suspended prison sentence. She does not have to go to prison at this time.

Anastasiya Sycheva

• Born: 1977 (Teploozyorsk, Jewish Autonomous Region)

• Biography: Had four siblings, but two have passed away. Graduated from medical college with a nursing degree. Worked in a dental office and then was employed at a psychiatric hospital. After her oldest sister passed away in death, she agreed to take custody of her sister’s two young children. Took care of her mother until she died after a long illness

  When she was a teenager, she contemplated the brevity of life. This led her to look into the Bible. There she found satisfying answers. Baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1994

The Russian authorities placed Anastasiya on its list of “extremists” in October 2019. On September 25, 2019, the Investigative Department of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Birobidzhan initiated a criminal case against Anastasiya. She is charged with deliberately continuing with the activities of the local religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses because she participated in religious meetings and discussed her faith with others.

During the court hearing, the prosecution played audio and video recordings of Anastasiya’s telephone conversations and from meetings she attended. The prosecution claimed that the recordings reveal that our sister was engaged in “extremist” activity. Anastasiya used this so-called evidence as an opportunity to give a witness. She explained that at the meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses people are taught how to cultivate compassion, mercy, patience, and other Christian qualities.

Her concluding comments during the trial allowed Anastasiya to explain how the Bible has had a positive influence on her life. She said, in part: “Today, I am being judged for my faith and because I continue my religious activity, that is, I read the Bible, gather together with my friends to discuss the Holy Scriptures, sing songs of praise to Jehovah, and pray to him.

“How can I disregard the commandment that is recorded in the letter to the Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24 and 25? I quote: ‘And let us consider one another so as to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking our meeting together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you see the day drawing near.’ If the Most High God, Jehovah himself, encourages me to meet together with my friends, my fellow believers, to read the Bible, to encourage and to display kindness to one another, then how can I disobey him? He is someone that I deeply love, respect, and worship.”

We rejoice to hear how Anastasiya boldly defended her faith and gave evidence of her resilient, positive spirit. We pray that she maintains her joy and that this ongoing test of her faith will further strengthen her endurance.—James 1:2, 3.