Victor Lapitsky
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Case dismissed
- Date of verdict
- 2025-12-30
- Region
- Saint Petersburg
- City
- Saint Petersburg
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as a political prisonerby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 30 October 2023
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 St. Petersburg. On 8 June 2023, a criminal case was initiated against Lapitsky for organising activities of an extremist organisation because of his involvement in the Jehovah's Witnesses community. In September 2023, the believer was detained, he stayed in a pre-trial detention cell for 24 hours. The court placed him under a house arrest.
Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles on the basis of solely religious activities: holding meetings and worship services, attracting new supporters.
In November 2024, it was reported that Lapitsky died.
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.