The Aleksinsky Interdistrict Court of the Tula Region fined foreign citizen Okhunjon Isabaev 35,000 rubles for conducting namaz in an industrial zone. This was reported by the press service of the regional courts.
The man was found guilty under the article on the implementation of missionary activity by a foreign citizen in violation of the requirements of the law (Part 5 of Article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Under this article, courts can decide to deport foreigners from Russia, but the judge did not do this.
"It was established that the man, being a foreign citizen, conducted the religious service "Namaz" five times a day starting in 2023," the court's press service wrote. "He carried out missionary activities in a room of an administrative and household building on the territory of the industrial zone of the Aleksinsky District. By attracting other persons professing the religion of "Islam", Isabaev O. did not have the appropriate authority to carry out missionary activities. He also did not have the authority to conduct a religious ceremony."
- In August last year, a court in the Kemerovo Region fined Azerbaijani citizen Ruslan Guseinov 30,000 rubles under a similar article on "illegal missionary work." At the trial, he refused to admit his guilt, stating that he had simply visited the mosque and, together with other parishioners, discussed religious topics. That same year, foreigner Saidjon Vokhidov was fined 5,000 rubles for conducting namaz in a parking lot during Eid al-Adha.