Andriy Kozhushko
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Suspended prison sentence
- Sentence
- 6 years
- Date of verdict
- 2024-11-25
- Region
- Sverdlovsk Oblast
- City
- NULL
Case summary
Disabled person of the II group. He was born in November 1975 in the village of Georgievka (Kazakhstan). In 1985 he moved with his mother to the Russian settlement of Tayozhny (Sverdlovsk region). As a child, he was fond of skiing, played chess, and in summer liked to go fishing and to the forest for mushrooms. After school he received a specialisation as a car mechanic-driver. He did not do military service because of his disability. In April 2023, Kozhushko was searched, interrogated and then brought as a defendant in a case of participation in the activities of an extremist organisation because of his involvement in the Jehovah's Witnesses community. Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely because of their religious activities - holding meetings, joint worship services, attracting new supporters. On 25 November 2024, Kozhushko was sentenced to six years' suspended sentence.
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.
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