The mother of Akhmed Balkarov, who is serving a sentence in Correctional Colony No. 4 in the Penza Region, contacted the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center. She alleged that her son was subjected to ethnic and religious discrimination by the prison administration. He was repeatedly forbidden to practice Islam.
Inver Siyukhov, a 51-year-old resident of Adygea, was released after four years in a pre-trial detention center. He was found guilty of participating in the religious Christian organization Jehovah's Witnesses, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation.
In March 2024, Inver Siyukhov was sentenced to six years. He spent four years in a detention center, where the term of punishment is counted according to the principle of a day for a day and a half in the colony. Indoors, Siyukhov was forced to wear a cap because of the constant cold.
In 2017, at the request of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses organization was banned in the Russian Federation. Many of its participants were prosecuted and sentenced to real and conditional terms.