Searches and a Criminal Case for Faith in the Sverdlovsk Region

Early in the morning of April 16, 2019, in Karpinsk (Sverdlovsk region), 6 law enforcement officers came to the house of Alexander and Anastasia Pryanikov with a search. A search was conducted in the apartment and car. Alexander is suspected of practicing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses.

In the hands of law enforcement officers was a warrant to search the car of the Pryanikovs, issued by Captain of Justice Vladimir Sudin from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the city of Krasnoturyinsk. The investigator expected to find religious literature in the car, but seized only electronic devices, and not from the car, but from the apartment.

A criminal case under the article "participation in the activities of an extremist organization" (part 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) against Alexander Pryanikov, as well as a local resident Venera Dulova, was initiated on July 30, 2018. After 2 days, 3 searches were carried out: in the apartment of Venera Dulova, at the dacha of her relatives and in the apartment of the Pryanikovs during their departure. During the interrogation, Venera Dulova, as well as her 18-year-old daughter, were pressured and intimidated with long prison terms. The girl was asked if her parents read religious literature. On the same day, Venera Dulova signed a recognizance not to leave.

Upon returning home, in August 2018, Alexander Pryanikov came to the investigator and was interrogated as a suspect. In September, he was released on his own recognizance.

It is known that the written materials seized from believers in 2018 were sent for examination to the Department of Theology of the Ural Mining University.