Garegin Khachaturian
- 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
- 2024-06-26
- Region
- Rostov Oblast
- City
- Novocherkassk
- Facility
- ФКУ ИК-8 УФСИН России по Астраханской области
- Address for letters
- 414044 Астраханская область, г. Астрахань ул. Советской Гвардии, д. 50, ФКУ ИК-8 УФСИН России по Астраханской области, Хачатурян Гарегин Беникович, 1967 г.р.
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as persecuted for exercising freedom of religionby Memorial Human Rights Centre, 15 August 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
On 11 August 2022, searches took place in at least 10 homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Novocherkassk (Rostov Oblast). Khachaturian was taken into custody on charges of organizing activities of an extremist organization in connection with his involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses community. Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely for religious activities: meetings, joint worship services, attracting new supporters. The hearings on the case began in September 2023.
On 26 June 2024, he was sentenced to six and a half years in a general regime 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.