Case History
After a series of searches in Magadan in May 2018, Konstantin Petrov, Yevgeniy Zyablov and Sergey Yerkin were placed in a pre-trial detention center. On the same day in Khabarovsk, Ivan Puida was searched. He was arrested and then taken 1,600 km away to a pre-trial detention center in Magadan. The believers spent 2 to 4 months behind bars, and then were placed under house arrest. In March 2019, the FSB conducted another series of searches. The number of defendants in the case has reached 13, including 6 women, including elderly women. The investigator regarded the holding of peaceful worship services as organizing the activities of an extremist organization, participating in it and financing it. In almost 4 years of investigation, the case against 13 believers has grown to 66 volumes. It went to court in March 2022. At the hearings, it became clear that the case was based on the testimony of a secret witness, an FSB informant who kept covert recordings of peaceful worship. In March 2024, the believers were given suspended sentences ranging from 3 to 7 years, and an appeal later upheld this sentence.