The case of Malyanov and others in Nizhny Novgorod

Case History

In July 2019, mass searches were carried out in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nizhny Novgorod. After that, several believers became defendants in criminal cases under an article for extremism. One of them was filed against Sergey Konshin, Sergey Malyanov and his daughter, Svetlana. The believers spent 24 hours in a temporary holding facility. Even before these events, the officers were listening in on Malyanov’s telephone conversations. Later, another defendant appeared in the case - Roman Zhivolupov. The believers were added to the Rosfinmonitoring list and they had to sign a recognizance agreement. In February 2022, the case went to court. The charges are based on a video recording of an event. The investigation considered the party a continuation of the activity of a liquidated religious organization. In April 2023, these Nizhny Novgorod residents were sentenced to fines ranging from 450,000 to 700,000 rubles. Later, the court of appeal upheld the guilty verdict, toughening the additional part of the punishment – not to hold any leading positions in religious and public organizations for 2 years and 11 months.

Back to top