New Wave of Searches in Tomsk. Two Foreign Citizens Among the Detainees

On May 30, 2025, a series of searches and detentions took place in Tomsk: law enforcement officers came to at least four addresses. A citizen of Kazakhstan, Anton Novopashin, a student from Côte d'Ivoire, Gonhi Jahi, Andrey Plekhanov, as well as Yuriy Pichugin, who recently suffered a stroke, ended up in the pre-trial detention center.

The searches began around 6 am. Law enforcement officers seized electronic devices, personal records, bank cards, cash and Bibles. Then the believers were taken for interrogation to the Investigative Committee. Among them were three women who were later released. The next day, the judge of the Kirovskiy District Court of the city of Tomsk, Maria Tynyanaya, sent four men into custody to the Pre-trial detention center-1 in the Tomsk Region.

On May 29, Captain of Justice Vyacheslav Lebedev, investigator for particularly important cases of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Tomsk Region, opened criminal cases under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. On the same day, he combined them with the case of Pushkov and others. Believers are accused of holding conversations and participating in events with the aim of "immersing citizens in the religious movement" of Jehovah's Witnesses. The case contains the testimony of a secret witness who was present at some of the religious meetings.