Inver Siyukhov, One of Jehovah's Witnesses from Maykop, Served His Sentence and Released

On April 30, 2025, Inver Siyukhov, 51, who had been convicted of his faith, was released. He spent in a pre-trial detention center, where the term of punishment is taken into account on the principle of a year for a year and a half, all four years. This is a record for the length of time that Jehovah's Witnesses are held in a pre-trial detention center. At the checkpoint, the believer was met by his relatives.

Inver Siyukhov was sentenced to six years in prison, but he was never sent to the colony. From the moment of his arrest until his release, he was in a pre-trial detention center (PFRSI) at penal colony No. 1 of a strict regime in the village of Tlyustenkhabl, which is about 110 km from Maykop. Conditions of detention in a PFRSI are much harsher than in a penal colony. For a long time, Inver almost did not go out for walks due to the fact that about 40 prisoners were taken out into the small prison yard at the same time - most of them smokers. In such conditions, there was no opportunity to breathe fresh air or make any exercises. When indoors, Inver had to wear a hat due to constant drafts and cold.

"In winter, there was sometimes no heating for weeks. If the temperature dropped below five degrees below zero, frost formed on the walls, and it was very cold in the cell, we slept dressed. Also, there was often no hot water," the believer himself said about the time of imprisonment. "Food was scarce, but relatives and friends regularly sent parcels. It helped not only me, but also other prisoners who saw the generosity of Jehovah's Witnesses, and their bias was dispelled."

For 2 months after his arrest, Siyukhov did not have a Bible, and the first letters were handed over to him only 5 months later, after appeals to various authorities, including the Commissioner for Human Rights. Subsequently, he was able to receive over 1000 letters. "One of the 'experienced' prisoners even admitted that he had never seen so many letters here before. And when the colony staff said that all these letters were for one person, he was generally shocked," Inver said, expressing gratitude to everyone who supported him.

A letter of gratitude that Inver Siyukhov received from another prisoner. It says: ‘Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for being there! You make this world a better place! To the best of your ability, you try to make this world a better place day by day. Reminding and showing by example what we should be, what we can become. As we may have been, but at some point we lost ourselves. Your eyes always shine with warmth.’

Wherever Inver was placed, he tried to provide practical help to those around him. After 2 months in the pre-trial detention center, one prisoner admitted that he had stopped lying, and two more quit smoking. One of the former cellmates sent a letter of gratitude to Inver and his fellow believer Nikolay Saparov. "Even here, you help people feel happy at least for a moment," he wrote. "You managed to restore my faith in people... This world needs you, we all need you!"

In the Republic of Adygea, after the release of Inver Siyukhov and Nikolay Voishchev, Nikolay Saparov, who is due to leave prison in September 2026, remains in prison.