Photo: Invasion of believers in Tomsk (2018)

Photo: Invasion of believers in Tomsk (2018)

Photo: Invasion of believers in Tomsk (2018)

Actions of Law Enforcement Officers

In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, a 77-year-old woman was subjected to an armed raid by security forces because of her grandson's religion

Krasnoyarsk Territory

On August 2, 2019, in the village of Nikolaevka (Krasnoyarsk Territory), masked and bulletproof security forces broke into the house of 77-year-old Lyubov Mirenyuk when she was alone at home and demanded that all available electronic devices be handed over. The reason is the religion of her grandson.

The search warrant was signed by the judge of the Leninsky District Court of Krasnoyarsk, Artem Ginter. The only reason for such actions was that her grandson, who professes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, was registered in the woman's house. Lyubov Mirenyuk herself does not share this faith. Subsequent events turned into a real nightmare for an elderly woman. In the afternoon, armed men climbed over the fence, broke into the house and began the search without identifying themselves or showing any documents. They threatened a long prison term for her grandson, saying that a criminal case had already been opened against him under the article "extremism". Lyubov refused to believe it, knowing that her grandson was a decent and law-abiding person.

Lyubov Mirenyuk has poor health and has not gone out for a long time, he moves around the house with great difficulty. She was very frightened by the behavior of armed masked men. From the resulting stress, the pensioner had a dangerously high blood pressure. She did not receive any protocols from the authorities.

The search was sanctioned as part of a criminal case against Andrey Stupnikov, which has been going on since July 3, 2018. He is accused of "organizing the activities of an extremist organization" (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) for the sole reason of professing the religious views of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Case of Stupnikov in Krasnoyarsk

Case History
In July 2018, FSB officers arrested engineer Andrei Stupnikov at the Krasnoyarsk airport. The next day, an investigator opened the first criminal case in the region under an extremist article against him for reading the Bible and praying together with friends. He spent 337 days in a pre-trial detention center, 124 days under house arrest and about 2 years under a ban on certain actions. In February 2020, Andrey Stupnikov’s case went to court, and in June 2021 he was sentenced to 6 years in a general regime colony. The appeal upheld this sentence, and the believer was sent to a penal colony in the Kirov region to serve his sentence. In August 2022, the cassation court upheld the decision of the appellate instance.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Krasnoyarsk Territory
Locality:
Krasnoyarsk
Suspected of:
according to the investigation they participated in religious services, which is interpreted as “organising the activity of an extremist organisation” (with reference to the decision of the Russian Supreme Court on the liquidation of all 396 registered organisations of Jehovah’s Witnesses).
Court case number:
11802040002000032
Initiated:
July 3, 2018
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
initially, Investigative Department of the Zheleznodorozhnyy District of the Investigative Committee of the city of Krasnoyarsk, later the case was transferred to the Second Investigation Department of the First Directorate for Investigating Especially Im
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-6/2021 (1-113/2020)
Case History