Sergey Rygaev
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Compulsory labour
- Date of verdict
- 2026-04-29
- Region
- Omsk Oblast
- City
- Omsk
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as unlawfully deprived of liberty 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 Omsk. On 4 March 2024, a search was conducted at his home, before which law enforcers met Rygaev on the street, threw him to the ground and gave him several blows, forcing him to unlock his phone. The next day Rygaev was taken into custody on charges of organising the activities of an extremist organisation due to his involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses community. On 26 August 2024, Rygaev was transferred to house arrest. On 24 February 2025, the preventive measure was changed to a ban on certain actions.
Representatives of the Jehovah's Witnesses community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely for religious activities: meetings, joint worship services, attracting new supporters.
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.