September 5, 2026, 7:46 AMTELEGRAMRSSRU
Political persecutionЧитать по-русски →

Alexey Berchuk

ImprisonedChecked against the source: September 5, 2026, 6:09 AM
Criminal Code
Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
Case category
Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
Verdict
Imprisonment (general regime)
Sentence
8 years
Date of verdict
2021-06-29
Region
Amur Oblast
City
Blagoveshchensk
Facility
ФКУ «ИК № 3 УФСИН по Республике Марий Эл»
Address for letters
ул. Медведево, 1, Медведево, Респ. Марий Эл, 425200, ФКУ «ИК № 3 УФСИН по Республике Марий Эл», Берчук Алексей Александрович, 1975 г.р.

Case summary

On 21 January 2019, he was detained at Moscow airport, taken to Blagoveshchensk, and then released on his own recognizance on charges of organising activities for an extremist organisation due to his involvement in the Jehovah's Witnesses community. Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely for religious activities: meetings, joint worship services, and attracting new supporters.

On June 30, 2021, he was sentenced to eight years in a general regime penal colony.

Others charged under Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code

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Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database

Published under CC BY 3.0. The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info; FACTUM relays their assessment and makes none of its own.

OVD-Info has been designated an «extremist» organisation in Russia — by decision of the Russian authorities, like other independent human rights and media projects.