Sergey Polosenko
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Imprisonment (general regime)
- Sentence
- 7 years
- Date of verdict
- 2024-01-25
- Region
- Samara Oblast
- City
- Samara
- Facility
- ФКУ «ИК № 12 УФСИН России по Республике Мордовия»
- Address for letters
- 431101, Мордовия, Зубово- Полянский р-н, пос. Молочница, ул. Новая д.2, ФКУ «ИК № 12 УФСИН России по Республике Мордовия», Полосенко Сергей Иванович, 1968 г.р.
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as unlawfully deprived of liberty for exercising freedom of religionby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 30 January 2024
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
In December 2021, at least 10 homes of Jehovah's Witnesses were searched in Samara. In one of the flats, law enforcers tortured and beat believers. Three men - Polosenko, Kuzyanin and Vasiliev - were arrested and sent to custody on charges of participation in the activities of an extremist organisation in connection with their involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses community. Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely for religious activities: meetings, joint worship services, and attracting new supporters.
In December 2022, he was transferred from custody under a ban on certain actions. In April 2023, the case went to court.
On 25 January 2024, Polosenko was sentenced to seven 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.