Jehovah's Witness from Saratov Rustam Seidkuliev was deported from Russia to Turkmenistan on September 17. This was reported by the portal "Jehovah's Witnesses. Legal situation in Russia".
Earlier, at the initiative of the FSB, the believer’s Russian citizenship was revoked due to persecution under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).
In May 2021, the Leninsky District Court of Saratov sentenced Seidkuliev to two and a half years in prison. The man was released from Correctional Colony No. 33 in Saratov on April 7 after more than two years of imprisonment.
Two months later, the court issued a deportation ruling and on June 19, the believer was detained and sent to the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens. The Kirov District Court of Saratov allowed Seidkuliev to be deported only after serving an additional sentence. This gave the man the opportunity to remain in Russia with his family for more than six months after his release from the colony. Despite the court's decision, he was deported ahead of schedule.
FMS officers tried to expel Seidkuliev from Russia twice. The first time was on September 15, but the flight was delayed and the man was returned to the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens.
“The next day, the staff came and said: ‘You have 15 minutes to get ready,’” the believer said.
As the portal notes, more than 20 years ago, Seidkuliev's stepfather was deported from Turkmenistan because he was a Jehovah's Witness. That's how the believer's family ended up in Russia.
- In 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" as an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities in Russia. All Jehovah's Witnesses organizations were added to the list of banned organizations, after which a stream of criminal cases against believers began. Rosfinmonitoring added hundreds of Russian followers of Jehovah's Witnesses to the list of extremists and terrorists. Most of the people on the list are believers aged 40 to 60.
- On June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights declared the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses organizations and the subsequent persecution of believers to be unlawful. From the ECHR's point of view, the decision to liquidate the organization and the criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses is based on an overly broad definition of "extremism", which in Russian legislation "can be applied to absolutely peaceful forms of expression."
In October 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court clarified the application of the "anti-extremist" legislation. The document, in particular, states that actions "consisting solely in the exercise of the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, including through individual or joint practice of religion, worship or other religious rites and ceremonies, do not in themselves constitute a crime under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (Participation in the activities of an extremist organization - OVD-Info )." According to OVD-Info lawyer Tatyana Glushkova, these changes allow courts to terminate criminal cases brought against former members of liquidated religious organizations (for example, Jehovah's Witnesses).