Vladimir Piskarev
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal CodeArticle 282.2 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Ban on activity, Imprisonment (general regime), Restriction of liberty
- Sentence
- 6 years
- Date of verdict
- 2023-10-13
- Region
- Oryol Oblast
- City
- Oryol
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as persecuted for exercising freedom of religionby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 25 March 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
Resident of Orel. On December 9th 2020 detained after a search. On December 11th, the court decided to send him to custody on charges of involvement in the activities of an extremist organisation in connection with involvement in 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. In June 2021 it turned out that Piskarev had suffered a stroke. On October 13th 2023, he was sentenced to six years in a general regime colony. He was released on April 9th 2025.
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.