The Kursk court sent the believer to a pre-trial detention center. The number of Kurians arrested for their faith has reached four

Today, January 23, the court for 47 days (until March 11, 2020) imprisoned a resident of Kursk, Andrei Ryshkov. The decision on another detainee, Oleksandr Vospitanyuk, has not yet been made by the judicial authorities.

Andrey Ryshkov, 32, and Aleksandr Vospitanyuk, 40, were detained on January 21, 2020 after they appeared for questioning. It is not yet known exactly what they are accused of, but the detention took place against the backdrop of a series of searches and arrests that took place in Kursk last fall in connection with a criminal case under "extremist" articles initiated for reading and discussing the Bible together.

Since then, Kurians Andrey Andreev and a married couple Alevtina and Artyom Bagratyan have been behind bars. The latter's health problems worsened after his arrest.

In most cases, the detention of detainees in pre-trial detention facilities is not limited to the initial term, since the courts then extend the measure of restraint. Sometimes peaceful believers are forced to spend a year or even more in a pre-trial detention center awaiting trial. For example, Dmitry Barmakin , a believer from Vladivostok, spent almost a year and three months in prison.

The security forces perceive the confession of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses as a continuation of the activities of the 396 legal organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses banned in Russia, although the courts did not prohibit the faith itself.