Andrey Sazonov was released from house arrest. The court considered that the exemplary father of the family could be at large

On August 22, 2019, the Court of Appeal of Khanty-Mansiysk changed the measure of restraint for Andrey Sazonov from house arrest to prohibition of certain actions. Judge Natalia Pashayeva ruled that "the decision of the court of first instance is not based on objective data and contradicts the articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation."

Now the believer is forbidden to communicate with "people related to the criminal case", send and receive correspondence, use the Internet and telephone according to the circumstances of the criminal case. Meanwhile, the case against Andrey Sazonov, initiated on January 31, 2019, continues to be investigated. He still faces up to 10 years in prison for believing in God under two parts of Article 282.2 (1 and 2) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Earlier, the deputy head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug M. Kartoev, in whose proceedings the criminal case is located, appealed to the court with a petition to extend the term of house arrest of Andrei Sazonov until September 30, 2019. However, Judge Pashayeva came to the conclusion that the decision of the court of first instance to extend the measure of restraint in the form of house arrest is not based on objective data and contradicts several articles of the Criminal Procedure Code at once. In particular, there is no evidence that Andrei Sazonov obstructed the investigation or plans to do so in the future. In addition, the court of first instance did not take into account the state of health of the accused, who requires surgery. Attention is drawn to the positive characteristics of the accused, his social adaptation, the availability of his own housing and family.

Andrey Sazonov has learned all the facets of criminal prosecution. Previously, he spent 20 days in a pre-trial detention center, 178 days under house arrest with a bracelet on his leg, and now he is deprived of the opportunity to communicate freely. All this is due to the fact that the authorities consider the peaceful practice of religion to be "extremist activities." Andrey is an engineer by profession, married, has a son and a daughter.

At the moment, 22 believers in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug are involved in criminal cases on the basis of religion. Meanwhile, the Russian Government confirmed that the decisions of the Russian courts on the liquidation and prohibition of their organizations "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually."