In Rostov and Kursk Regions at Least 12 Searches Took Place. Four Believers Were Sent to the Detention Center for Religious Views

On August 8, 2020 at least 12 local believers were searched in the cities of Gukovo, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov-on-Don and Kursk. The next day, 51-year-old Oleg Shidlovsky, 40-year-old Evgeny Razumov, 39-year-old Alexei Gorely and 30-year-old Nikita Moiseyev were sent to the pre-trial detention center.

The raids were held as part of a criminal case, which was initiated on August 7 by a senior investigator of the Department of Investigation of particularly important cases of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Rostov region, V.V. Pyatitsky in relation to 6 believers: Nikita Moiseyev, Alexei Gorely, Evgeny Razumov, Alexei Dyadkin, Oleg Shidlovsky and Vladimir Popov. They are suspected of organizing extremist activities (part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). According to the investigation, the believers' fault is that they called meetings of believers, prayed and sang songs to God Jehovah. According to several law enforcement officers during the searches, an FSB agent had been watching believers for a long time.

The day after the initiation of the criminal case the raids began. Most of them took place in the believers of Gukov residents. FSB and Investigative Committee officers invaded civilian homes in the early morning. In one of the cases, law enforcers introduced themselves as workers of the water supply organization. Mobile devices, computer hard drives, flash drives and personal records were seized from believers, as well as from some relatives who do not share their religious views.

As part of this criminal case, searches were also carried out at Alexei Gorely in Rostov-on-Don, at Nikita Moiseyev in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, and at Olga Dyadkina, who lives in Kursk.

As a result, Oleg Shidlovsky, a school physical education teacher, Evgeny Razumov, a driller, Alexey Gorely, an accountant, and Nikita Moiseyev, a construction worker and a household appliance repair foreman, were detained and taken to the Rostov-on-Don temporary detention facility. On August 9th , the Leninsky District Court sent all four of them under arrest for one month 29 days, until October 6th, 2020.