The health of a 68-year-old believer from Sochi has deteriorated to a threatening state in the Armavir pre-trial detention center

Close to the critical state of health of Nikolai Kuzichkin is a law-abiding, previously unconvicted piano tuner. Lack of treatment for life-threatening diseases has already led him to lose 24 kilograms in just a month and a half. He was arrested during a raid on believers on October 10, 2019.

On November 14, 2019, Nikolay Kuzichkin told his lawyer: "The management of the Armavir pre-trial detention center No. 2 and the head of the medical unit Sidelnikov refused my numerous applications requesting my medical examination and treatment. At the same time, Sidelnikov verbally explained to me that, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, he does not have the right to send me for medical examination and treatment. [...] I believe that I, as a sick person, do not receive medical care. All this is inhuman treatment and torture."

Earlier, on October 30, Nikolai Kuzichkin's lawyer appealed to the head of the Armavir pre-trial detention center, Maxim Tereshchenko, with a request for a medical examination. After a week of deliberation, on November 6, Maksim Tereshchenko rejected the petition, citing the fact that Kuzichkin's condition did not fit the "list of diseases that impede detention."

Nikolay Kuzichkin, 68, is the oldest of 40 Jehovah's Witnesses currently held in prison for their faith. The decision to send him, as well as Vyacheslav Popov, to prison for his faith was made by 35-year-old judge Nikolai Shevelev, a native of the village of Krasnaya Polyana (Sochi). Before that, on October 10, 2019, in Sochi, from the Lazarevskoye microdistrict up to the village of Krasnaya Polyana in the mountains and the village of Veseloye near the border with Abkhazia, a total of 36 searches were carried out in one day.

On November 20, 2019, the term of detention of Nikolay Kuzichkin was extended by Judge Martynenko for another 1 month, until December 24, 2019.

Letters of support to the believer can be sent to: Kuzichkin Nikolay Nikolaevich, born in 1951, FKU SIZO-2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Krasnodar Territory, Pugachev str., 32, Armavir, Krasnodar Territory, Russia, 352909.

Correspondence can be sent by regular mail or through the FSIN-letter system.