21:00, 15 October 2023

Rights defender Igor Nagavkin complains of insult to his religious feelings

Igor Nagavkin. Screenshot of the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=889D7ey9c0w

Igor Nagavkin, a rights defender from Volgograd, has sent complaints to investigating bodies, in which he stated that the management of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) had insulted his feelings as a believer by prohibiting the use of icons during prayers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 18, the court found Nagavkin guilty of stealing some jewellery and sentenced him to six years in prison. On July 18, 2023, the regional court partially granted Nagavkin's appeal by reducing his prison term by two months.

In 2016, Igor Nagavkin, an expert with the "For Human Rights" movement, was arrested within the case of jewellery theft from a pawnshop. In November 2018, he was released and resumed his human rights work, but the criminal case was not dropped. In June 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) declared Nagavkin's arrest and long-term detention in 2016 illegal.

According to Nagavkin, on August 1, the SIZO staff forbade him and his cellmate to pray on the day of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. They overturned the icons and banned to use them. Igor demanded that they be held criminally liable for insulting the feelings of Orthodox believers.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 14, 2023 at 04:11 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Vyacheslav Yaschenko

Source: СK correspondent