Case History
In the fall of 2020, 12 apartments of peaceful believers in Nizhnekamsk were invaded by FSB officers and riot police. The investigation initiated a criminal case under an article for extremism. The grounds were that the security forces “revealed the practices used by the religious organization Jehovah’s Witnesses” - singing religious songs and praying. Since August 2021, Dmitry Yarchak, who suffers from cerebral palsy, as well as Denis Filatov and Stanislav Klyuchnikov have been under recognizance agreement. Their case went to court in January 2022. Several witnesses stated that they gave testimony to the investigator under pressure and threats from the security forces, and one woman reported that the investigator arbitrarily wrote words in the protocol that she did not say. Part of the charge was based on the testimony of a secret witness. In September 2023, the court gave Filatov, Klyuchnikov and Yarchak a 6-year suspended sentence, and in December the appeal upheld this decision.