Feliks Makhammadiyev has been released. He was deported from Russia, and reconnected with his wife at the central railway station in Tashkent

On January 21, 2021, Feliks Makhammadiyev, having fully served his 3-year prison sentence for his faith, having lost his Russian citizenship due to criminal prosecution, was released in the country of his birth. His wife, Yevgenia, a Russian citizen, left the country after him.

Felix Makhammadiev was severely beaten by guards in Penal Colony No. 1 in the Orenburg region, with a broken rib and punctured lung, and ended up in hospital. On December 31, 2020, after his release from the colony, Feliks Makhammadiyev was placed behind barbed wire in a migration center. On the night of January 20, Interior Ministry officials put him on a train to Tashkent, and 20 hours later he was reunited with his wife.

Following the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, Feliks Makhammadiyev became the first member of that religion to serve a full court-ordered sentence in a penal colony for his faith. He was also the first prisoner of conscience to have his citizenship revoked effectively on the basis of his religious affiliation.

Felix has lived in Russia since 2002, when he arrived as a teenager with his mother from Uzbekistan. Here he led a law-abiding life - obtained citizenship, worked as a hairdresser, and created a family. However, in the summer of 2018, a criminal case was opened against him and five other believers from Saratov on charges of organizing extremist activity. The only culpability of the believers was peaceful religious meetings, where they read the Bible and discussed Christian teachings. All five were found guilty, Felix was sentenced to 3 years in a minimum-security penal colony.

"I cherish a clear conscience before God and my neighbors ... I have never questioned the correctness of the norms of right and wrong set forth in secular laws," Feliks Makhammadiyev told the court shortly before his sentencing. "In my heart I experience dignity for the humiliation through which we still go, without making me, my family or my friends bitter to society.

In a colony hundreds of miles from home, the believer endured brutal beatings, unjust treatment, and grueling labor. As his wife, Eugenia, said shortly before Felix's release, he endured it all with an inherent smile: "I am very proud of him! Not only did he survive the trial with dignity, but he continues to endure the hardships with dignity."