In Magadan, after 129 days in pre-trial detention, three believers were placed under house arrest

On October 5, 2018, the Magadan Regional Court decided to soften the measure of restraint for 65-year-old Sergey Yerkin, 41-year-old Yevgeny Zyablov and 41-year-old Ivan Puida and transferred them to house arrest. They were arrested on May 30, 2018 by officers of the Magadan Region Directorate of the FSB of Russia.

Earlier, on August 3, 2018, the court sent under house arrest another defendant in this case, 31-year-old Konstantin Petrov, who was also arrested on May 30.

All four face up to 10 years in prison under the article "organization of the activities of an extremist community" (part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). After the Russian Supreme Court liquidated and declared "extremist" all 396 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, law enforcement agencies across the country mistakenly interpret peaceful meetings of believers as "extremist activity." A total of at least 37 people were sent to prison (pre-trial detention center or temporary detention facility), most of them, 21 people, are still in pre-trial detention, the rest of the preventive measure was mitigated. At the same time, in the ECHR, the Russian Government argues that the decision of the Supreme Court and the appellate ruling by which it was upheld "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teaching individually" (par. 91). Dozens of human rights activists, as well as the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation , express concern about the growing religious repression.