Nikolay Merinov
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Region
- Irkutsk Oblast
- City
- Irkutsk
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as persecuted for exercising freedom of religionby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
Resident of Irkutsk. On 4 October 2021, his house was searched. When the law enforcers broke into his house, they hit him in the face with a heavy object so that the man fell down and lost consciousness. They continued beating him, breaking his teeth. His wife Lilia was dragged out of bed by her hair, handcuffed and beaten. Merinov tried to have a criminal case opened in connection with the beating, but was unsuccessful. He left Russia in July 2022. Merinov was initially tried in a criminal case on the activities of an extremist organisation as a witness, but later he was accused in absentia of organising the activities.
Others charged under Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
What we write about political persecution
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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.