A 78-year-old resident of Arkhangelsk is accused of inciting religious hatred with criminal intent

On May 7, 2019, a criminal case was initiated against Kaleria Fedorovna Mamykina. The woman is accused of "continuing the illegal activities of the banned local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Arkhangelsk." Investigators equated reading the Bible and talking about faith with acts with criminal intent.

For more than a year, the woman was under surveillance, during which sufficient information was collected, according to investigators, indicating the presence in the actions of Kaleria Fedorovna of signs of a crime under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Namely: participation in meetings of groups of possible participants in extremist activities at their place of residence.

The case is being investigated by the investigator for the investigation of especially important cases of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Arkhangelsk Region and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug R. Shagarov, who is in the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Russian and foreign leaders and organizations unanimously condemn the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. These include the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation, prominent public figures of Russia, the European Union External Action Service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that the decisions of the Russian courts on the liquidation and prohibition of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually."