Photo source: WavebreakMediaMicro / stock.adobe.com

Photo source: WavebreakMediaMicro / stock.adobe.com

Photo source: WavebreakMediaMicro / stock.adobe.com

Legal Victories

Khanty-Mansiysk Court of Appeal Finds Unlawful Hospitalization of a Believer in a Psychiatric Clinic

Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area

On March 5, 2020, the Court of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra overturned the decision of the judge of the Surgut City Court Tatyana Slyusareva to send Timofey Zhukov for a 30-day psychiatric examination in Yekaterinburg. The detention and hospitalization of the believer were illegal.

On January 16, 2020, the Surgut City Court appointed an inpatient forensic psychiatric examination of Timofey Zhukov. The believer appealed against this decision.

On February 5, 2020, however, Timofey Zhukov was, in fact, abducted in Khanty-Mansiysk and taken away in an unknown direction. Later it became known that he was taken to the Sverdlovsk Regional Psychiatric Hospital in Yekaterinburg.

On February 19, 2020, upon completion of the examination, Timofey Zhukov left the hospital. Whether the believer will demand compensation for the illegal actions of the security forces is not yet known.

The Case of Loginov and Others in Surgut

Case History
In February 2019, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case against 18 men and 1 woman from Surgut (among them was a man mistakenly taken for one of Jehovah’s Witnesses). Their homes were searched. During the interrogations, 7 believers were subjected to violence. Artur Severinchik was sent to the pre-trial detention center for 29 days, and Yevgeniy Fedin and Sergey Loginov—for 56. Timofey Zhukov was unlawfully placed in a psychiatric hospital for 14 days. Believers filed complaints about the use of torture with the Investigative Committee, the ECHR and the Commissioner for Human Rights, a press conference was held with the participation of human rights defenders, but none of the law enforcement officers was brought to justice. In October 2021, the materials of the case, which in 2020 was separated into a different proceeding, went to court. Two years later, the court sentenced all believers to a suspended term from 4 to 7 years. In February 2025, the court of appeal upheld this verdict. A few months later, Igor Petrov learned that he had been deprived of Russian citizenship. He challenged this, and in June 2026, the Court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area reinstated his rights.
Timeline

Persons in case

Kim
Artem
Boronos
Vyacheslav
Burenesku
Vasily
Fedin
Evgeny
Fefilov
Victor
Gargalyk
Saveliy
Petrov
Igor
Kayryak
Evgeny
Kobotov
Igor
Logins
Sergey
Plekhov
Aleksey
Romashov
Paul
Rysikov
Leonid
Severinchik
Arthur
Shepel
Viola
Trifonov
Igor
Volosnikov
Sergey
Zhukov
Timofey

Criminal case

Region:
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area
Locality:
Surgut
Suspected of:
delivered talks, engaged in the public preaching activity with local Jehovah's Witnesses, conducted meetings with 'pioneers', 'elders', and 'ministerial servants', including aiming at organizing the activity of the 'elders' in the 'Vzletnoye Congregation'
Court case number:
42002007709000023
Initiated:
February 11, 2019
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Investigative Department for the city of Surgut of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1), 282.3 (1), 282.2 (2)
Court case number:
1-27/2023 (1-130/2022; 1-1348/2021)
Court:
Surgut City Court
Judge:
Dmitriy Lyupin
Case History
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