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Photo source: WavebreakMediaMicro / stock.adobe.com

Photo source: WavebreakMediaMicro / stock.adobe.com

Legal Victories

Khanty-Mansiysk Court of Appeal Finds Unlawful Hospitalization of a Believer in a Psychiatric Clinic

Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area

On March 5, 2020, the Court of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra overturned the decision of the judge of the Surgut City Court Tatyana Slyusareva to send Timofey Zhukov for a 30-day psychiatric examination in Yekaterinburg. The detention and hospitalization of the believer were illegal.

On January 16, 2020, the Surgut City Court appointed an inpatient forensic psychiatric examination of Timofey Zhukov. The believer appealed against this decision.

On February 5, 2020, however, Timofey Zhukov was, in fact, abducted in Khanty-Mansiysk and taken away in an unknown direction. Later it became known that he was taken to the Sverdlovsk Regional Psychiatric Hospital in Yekaterinburg.

On February 19, 2020, upon completion of the examination, Timofey Zhukov left the hospital. Whether the believer will demand compensation for the illegal actions of the security forces is not yet known.

Case of Loginov and Others in Surgut

Case History
In February 2019, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against 18 men and 1 woman from Surgut (among them was a man mistaken for a Jehovah’s Witness). Their homes were searched. During the interrogations, 7 believers were subjected to violence. Artur Severinchik was sent to a pre-trial detention center for 29 days, and Yevgeny Fedin and Sergey Loginov - for 56. Timofey Zhukov was illegally placed in a psychiatric hospital for 14 days. Believers complained about the use of torture to the Investigative Committee, the ECHR and the Commissioner for Human Rights, a press conference was held with the participation of human rights defenders, but none of the security forces was ever brought to justice. In October 2021, the case materials were submitted to the court. The prosecutor requested imprisonment for the defendants for a term of 3 years and 3 months to 8.5 years in prison, and for Loginov - 9.5 years, which was the most severe request for punishment for believing in Jehovah God in modern Russia.
Timeline

Persons in case

Criminal case

Region:
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area
Locality:
Surgut
Suspected of:
delivering speeches, engaging in the Witnesses' public preaching activity with local members, meeting with Bible education volunteers and appointed congregation assistants, and having as one objective the organizing of appointed men in the Vzlyotnove Congregation
Court case number:
42002007709000023
Initiated:
February 11, 2019
Current case stage:
verdict did not take effect
Investigating:
Investigative Department of the city of Surgut of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Khanty-Mansi Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1), 282.3 (1), 282.2 (2)
Court case number:
№ 1-27/2023 (1-130/2022; 1-1348/2021)
Court:
Сургутский городской суд
Judge:
Дмитрий Люпин
Case History