Dmitrii Zagulin
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.3 (part unknown), Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Imprisonment (general regime)
- Sentence
- 3 years 6 months
- Date of verdict
- 2022-12-19
- Region
- Jewish Autonomous Oblast
- City
- Birobidzhan
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as persecuted for exercising freedom of religionby Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, 8 January 2020
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 Birobidzhan. Before criminal prosecution, he worked for many years for Russian Railways. In April 2019, it became known about the initiation of proceedings against him for financing the activities of an extremist organisation in connection with his involvement in the Jehovah's Witnesses. Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely for religious activities: meetings, joint worship services, attracting new supporters. Zagulin was searched on 17 May and given a recognisance not to leave.
On 19 December 2022, he was sentenced to three and a half years in a general regime colony.
On 27 March 2026, he was released from the colony. Zagulin must spend another eight years under administrative supervision.
Others charged under Article 282.3 (part unknown), 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.