Leonid Druzhinin
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Imprisonment (general regime)
- Sentence
- 6 years 6 months
- Date of verdict
- 2022-12-27
- Region
- Amur Oblast
- City
- Zeya
- Facility
- ФКУ «ИК № 14 УФСИН России по Хабаровскому краю»
- Address for letters
- 682640,Хабаровский край, г. Амурск, шоссе Машиностроителей д.10, ФКУ «ИК № 14 УФСИН России по Хабаровскому краю», Дружинин Леонид Иванович, 1969 г.р.
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as unlawfully deprived of liberty for exercising freedom of religionby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 27 December 2022
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
A resident of the Amur region, Druzhinin’s home was searched on 21 March 2019. A second search took place on 13 October 2020, prior to which he was detained and interrogated. On 1 June 2021, he was charged with participation in the activities of an extremist organisation in connection with his involvement in the Jehovah’s Witnesses community.
Members of this community have been prosecuted under extremist legislation solely for practising their faith — holding meetings, conducting worship services, and sharing their beliefs with others.
On 8 October, the charge against Druzhinin was reclassified as organising the activities of an extremist organisation. On 28 December 2022, he was sentenced to six and a half years’ imprisonment 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.