A Jehovah's Witness from Maikop has been released from prison.

A resident of Maikop, Nikolai Sapаров, has been released from prison after spending 4.5 years in detention on charges of extremism.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", Maikop resident Nikolai Sapаров was arrested on March 22, 2022. In January 2024, the Maikop City Court sentenced him to six years in a general regime colony with four years of restriction of freedom, finding him guilty under part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation 1 .

44-year-old Nikolai Sapаров was released from prison on September 22, as reported on September 25 by a website covering the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

In the last year, Sapаров was held in colony No. 5 in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, the publication notes.

The separation from my wife is the hardest part.

"The separation from my wife is the hardest part. Natasha visited me. I even kept statistics on how far she traveled for visits and packages: 25,640 kilometers," he said after his release.

His wife Natalia reported that her husband had a "very good reputation" in the colony. "Both among the inmates and with the administration. Some specifically sought to be transferred to his cell," her words are quoted in the publication.

Sapаров reported torture after his detention

Recall that in court, Sapаров stated that after his detention, he was beaten and tortured with an electric shocker in an attempt to extract a confession, and the search was conducted with violations, without witnesses. As a result, investigators found items in his home that, according to the believer, did not belong to him.

Earlier, the believer's lawyer Ruslan Dedukhov told "Caucasian Knot" that after his detention, according to Sapаров, threats and physical pressure were applied to him to confess.

Nikolai Sapаров was not given letters from relatives and friends, his wife reported to "Caucasian Knot" at that time. She noted that her husband is a model family man and has many friends, "there are always groups forming around him, and wherever he is, it is always fun."

He is a wonderful father, spending maximum time with his daughter.

"When I married him, I knew he would be a good husband, but I didn't know he would be this good. He is a wonderful father, spending maximum time with his daughter – he has achieved success in sports himself and tried to ensure that his daughter was also successful. He spends all his free time with the family," Natalia Sapаров told "Caucasian Knot" in May 2022.

Back in October 2021, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that individual or joint confession of religion, religious rituals, and ceremonies should not be considered activities of an extremist organization if they do not contain signs of extremism. However, in practice, state prosecutors ignore this decision.

Earlier, in October 2020, a court in Kabardino-Balkaria acquitted local Jehovah's Witness Yuri Zalipayev, accused of inciting extremism. In September 2021, the court awarded him 500,000 rubles in compensation, and the prosecutor apologized to the believer for the criminal prosecution. Acquittals for Jehovah's Witnesses are a rare occurrence in the Russian judicial system, commented the representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, Yaroslav Sivulsky, on the court's decision at that time.

The Supreme Court of Russia, on April 20, 2017, recognized the "Management Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" and 395 of its branches as extremist organizations by the Ministry of Justice's lawsuit, banning their activities. The consequences of this ban are covered by "Caucasian Knot" on the thematic page "Ministry of Justice against Jehovah's Witnesses".

* 396 Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses have been recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court decision.

** The activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.