Religious issues and persecution – Bimonthly Digest October 16-31
29.10.2024 – Roman Mareyev released after three years in pre-trial
JW – On October 25, 2024, Roman Mareyev, 46, was released, having completely served his sentence for faith. After his conviction, he never ended up in the colony. In total, he spent 1,100 days in three different pre-trial detention centers in Moscow.
A criminal case against Mareyev was initiated in October 2021, at the same time his home was searched. He was placed in a temporary detention facility, then in a pre-trial detention center. When Roman ended up in the pre-trial detention center, he did not have a bed and slept on the floor.
28.10.2024 – Russia’s Vladimir region bans hijabs in schools
Themoscowtimes – Authorities in Russia’s Vladimir region have banned students from wearing hijabs while at school.
According to the ban, which was enacted last week Tuesday, “clothing and elements demonstrating the student’s religious affiliation… are not allowed inside educational institutions,” including hijabs and niqabs.
The Vladimir region’s Education Ministry insisted in a statement on Saturday that the ban does not violate students’ rights since Russia’s Constitution establishes the country as a secular state without an official religion.
28.10.2024 – Court in Izhevsk sentences two men to long suspended terms for practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses religion
JW- On October 25, 2024, Judge Oksana Nazarova of the Pervomaisky District Court of Izhevsk sentenced Yevgeniy Stefanidin and Aleksandr Votyakov to six and six and a half years suspended, respectively. The court considered reading the Bible with fellow believers as organizing the activities of an extremist organization.
The prosecutor requested real prison terms for Votyakov, 50, and Stefanidin, 35, followed by one and a half years of restricted freedom for each. The believers do not admit guilt and may appeal.
28.10.2024 – Police raid on the Engels Mosque
Sova – On October 25, 2024, in Engels, Saratov region, after Friday prayer, a raid was held in the city mosque “Abu Hanifa” with the participation of FSB officers, police, prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Omon officers with machine guns cordoned off the building, everyone who came out was required to present documents, some of the parishioners were detained, some were handed summons to the military registration and enlistment office. Representatives of the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, took off their shoes, inspected the building, asked questions about fire safety, but did not make any claims.
24.10.2024 – Another Moscow priest is banned from the ministry for refusing to pray “For Holy Russia”
Sova – By the decree of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia dated October 15, 2024, Priest Konstantin Kokor, a cleric of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, the Patriarchal courtyard in Mitin (Moscow), was banned from serving for three years and appointed a psalmist of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Tushin. The reason for the ban was the priest’s refusal to read the prayer “About Holy Russia”.
The decision was made on the basis of the decision of the Disciplinary Commission under the Diocesan Council of Moscow dated August 15. As the reason for the ban, the decree indicates “oath crime” – “on the basis of the 25th rule of the Holy Apostles”.
22.10.2024 – Handcuffs, insults, and intimidation. A Jehovah’s Witness family in Kazan was searched
JW – On October 11, 2024, a Jehovah’s Witness family in Kazan was searched, after which the couple was being interrogated for two and a half hours. The authorities exerted psychological pressure on the adults and their three minor children.
Early in the morning, the family was awakened by a loud knock. Unknown individuals claimed that a fire would soon break out due to sparking wiring in the corridor. When the head of the family opened the door, three plainclothes officers, accompanied by two masked and armed law enforcement officers and two female witnesses, burst into the apartment. The man was thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and not allowed to dress for a long time.
22.10.2024 – The Muslim community “Alushta” was liquidated in Crimea
Sova – On October 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of Crimea satisfied the claim of the regional Ministry of Justice and liquidated the independent Muslim community “Alushta”.
Recall, according to the Ministry of Justice, the religious organization “admitted actions aimed at extremist activities”, thereby committing “a gross violation of the legislation regulating the activities of religious organizations”. The violations included the untimely exclusion from the community of its former chairmen and participants prosecuted under “extremist” articles.
21.10.2024 – Judicial statistics on “illegal missionary work” cases in the first half of 2024 have been published
Sova – On October 17, 2024, the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation published statistical data on the application of Art. 5.26 Administrative Code (violation of legislation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and religious associations) in the first half of 2024.
According to the department, in the first six months of 2024, 187 cases were considered under this article – more than in the same period of 2023 (145 cases).
16.10.2024 – A virtually inactive Baptist church was liquidated in the Voronezh region
Sova – In early October 2024, it became known that the Rossoshansky District Court of the Voronezh Region, having considered an administrative case on the claim of the Ministry of Justice against the local church of Evangelical Christian Baptists, liquidated this church.
The church was registered in 1995 in Rossoshi. In fact, her activities were virtually terminated in 2020, when her first presbyter died. In May 2024, the Association of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches appealed to the regional department of the Ministry of Justice with a request to exclude the Rossoshan Church from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, as it does not have a leader and parish.
The Ministry of Justice filed a corresponding lawsuit with the court, which was granted.
16.10.2024 – Thirteen believers, men and women, will serve suspended sentences.
JW – The verdict in the large-scale case of believers from Magadan — seven men and six women aged 32 to 73 — entered into force on October 15, 2024, by decision of the Magadan Regional Court. The prosecutor sought to change suspended sentences to prison terms for some of them, but the panel of judges supported the decision of the court of first instance.
All of the believers disagree with the guilty verdict and the appeal decision, according to which they will serve suspended sentences from 3 to 7 years. In their appeals, they drew attention to the absence of corpus delicti in their actions and stated that, according to the RF Constitution, they had every right to meet to discuss the Bible and to associate.
16.10.2024 – The investigative Committee reported on the completion of the investigation into the case of the Jehovah’s Witness from the KCR
Sova – In July 2024, Svetlana Ogoreva’s case was submitted to court and was immediately returned to the prosecutor. In October, the Investigative Committee again published a press release on the completion of the investigation and the transfer of the case to court.
On October 16, 2024, the Investigative Committee of Russia in Karachay-Cherkessia announced the completion of the investigation and transfer to the court of the case of Jehovah’s Witness, accused under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization).