Case History
In February 2023, a series of searches took place in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Saransk. A month earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a case on organizing the activities of an extremist organization. Several believers, including women, were taken for interrogation to the center for combating extremism. Some of them said that the investigators tried to force them to incriminate themselves and their friends. Artem Velichko, Mikhail Shevchuk and Ivan Neverov were placed in a pre-trial detention center for 2.5 months, and later under house arrest, where they spent more than 3 months. In August 2023, their preventive measure was changed to a ban on certain actions. The case against Artem Velichko was separated into a separate proceeding in October 2024.
