UN Working Group Finds Detention of 26 Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia Arbitrary, Calls for Immediate Release

A panel of independent experts working under a United Nations mandate has found that Russia's detention of 26 Jehovah's Witnesses is arbitrary, and has said the appropriate remedy is to release all 26 immediately and give them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.^[1]

The finding comes in Opinion No. 30/2026 of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, adopted on 30 March 2026 at the group's 105th session and released in an advance edited version dated 28 May 2026.^[1] The Working Group is not a court. It is a standing body of independent experts under a UN Human Rights Council mandate, and its job is to examine complaints that a government is holding someone without a proper legal basis. It issues opinions, not judgments, and cannot order anyone released.

The opinion names all 26 detainees — 19 men and 7 women — and finds their deprivation of liberty arbitrary on three of the five grounds the Working Group recognizes.^[1] It cites three earlier Working Group opinions concerning Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia: No. 11/2019, No. 34/2019 and No. 10/2020.^[1] It was published with the other opinions from that session.^[2]

What "arbitrary detention" means, and what the categories are

"Arbitrary detention" is the UN term for imprisonment that is unjustified under international human rights law — not merely unfair, but lacking a legitimate basis altogether. The Working Group sorts such cases into five numbered categories, each a different reason a detention can be arbitrary.^[1]

• Category I — there is no legal basis for the detention at all.
• Category II — the person is held for exercising a protected freedom, such as religion, expression or assembly.
• Category III — the trial was so unfair that the resulting detention becomes arbitrary.
• Category IV — migrants or asylum seekers held in prolonged administrative custody with no review.
• Category V — the detention is discriminatory, based on religion, ethnicity, political opinion or a similar characteristic.

The Working Group found the detention of the 26 arbitrary under categories I, II and V.^[1] It made no finding under category III. The source that brought the complaint had argued category III as well, but the point was overtaken: having found the detention arbitrary under category II, the Working Group emphasized that "no trials should have taken place" at all, and noted the source had offered no arguments beyond those already dealt with.^[1] Category III does not appear in the opinion's disposition, the formal ruling paragraph.^[1]

The opinion measures Russia against two instruments: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN's 1948 statement of fundamental rights, which is a declaration rather than a treaty, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — usually called the Covenant — a binding treaty Russia has ratified.^[1] The disposition finds the detention contrary to articles 2, 9, 12, 18, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration and articles 9, 17, 18, 19, 21 and 26 of the Covenant — in plain terms, equality before the law, liberty and freedom from arbitrary arrest, privacy of the home, and freedom of religion, expression and assembly.^[1]

The charges, and the figures the complainant submitted

The charges come from Russian Criminal Code provisions aimed at organizations designated "extremist": article 282.2(1) covers organizing such an organization's activities, 282.2(1.1) inducing or recruiting someone into one, 282.2(2) taking part in one, and 282.3(1) providing or collecting funds for one.^[1]

The opinion also records background submitted by the source, the party that brought the complaint, as of 23 December 2025. These are the source's figures, not findings the Working Group independently verified.^[1]

According to the source, at least 900 Jehovah's Witnesses have been charged under articles 282.2 and/or 282.3; at least 503 people, including 38 women, have been placed in pretrial detention or under house arrest; and the homes of more than 2,200 Jehovah's Witnesses have been raided by police.^[1] The source also states that 662 Jehovah's Witnesses have been convicted since the Supreme Court decision of 20 April 2017, which ordered the liquidation of the national Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses and all 395 local religious organizations, designating them extremist organizations.^[1] "Liquidation" means a court-ordered dissolution: the entity is wound up and its activities lose legal standing.

Two terms recur below. Pretrial detention is custody imposed before any trial has concluded — the person has not been convicted of anything. House arrest confines a person to their own home rather than a jail; the Working Group concluded that, here, house arrest amounted to detention.^[1]

The individual histories, as the source described them

The narratives below are the source's account. The Working Group noted the Government did not engage with them, and decided the case on what it called the unrefuted submissions.^[1] They are not independently established facts.

Valeriy Maletskov was arrested in Novossibirsk on 19 April 2019 during a raid on the homes of six Jehovah's Witnesses.^[1] He spent 182 days under house arrest, then 1,522 days under a recognizance agreement — a release condition under which a person signs a formal undertaking, typically not to leave the area or obstruct the case. Charged as the alleged organizer and spiritual leader of local Witnesses, he was convicted on 18 December 2023 and sentenced to six years in a penal colony, the standard Russian custodial institution.^[1]

Andrey Valeryevich Vlasov, of Prokopyevsk, has a disability — the opinion lists arthritis of the hip and of the shoulder (coxarthrosis and omarthrosis), spinal canal stenosis that effectively immobilizes him, and ischemic heart disease.^[1] He spent 678 days under house arrest, traveling more than 200 km to court for the repeated extensions, and was sentenced in May 2022 to seven years. Applications for release on medical grounds were reportedly denied.^[1]

Sergey Alexandrovich Naumenko left Russia in March 2025 for Belarus and applied for asylum.^[1] Russia sought his extradition — the formal process by which one country hands a person to another to face charges — and he was detained in Belarus from 12 June 2025. On 18 August 2025 that request was, in the Working Group's words, "reportedly refused on the basis that it was not shown he had committed any crime."^[1] He was nevertheless removed to Russia without formal documentation, on the basis of an agreement between the two countries' security services, on the night of 5–6 December 2025.^[1] The Working Group said the two countries' security forces had reportedly jointly renditioned him — a transfer outside any legal extradition process — and found this violated article 9(3) of the Covenant and article 9 of the Universal Declaration, since it was not shown why a lesser measure such as a travel ban would not have sufficed.^[1]

Anna Arnoldovna Safronova, of Astrakhan, spent 236 days under house arrest and was convicted on 25 January 2022 for participating in online religious meetings that included singing and prayers, and for monitoring contributions.^[1] She was sentenced to six years and had served 1,349 days as of 23 December 2025. The source further alleges she is being subjected to torture by the correctional facility's administration, aimed at forcing her to renounce her beliefs.^[1] The opinion records that allegation without examining it.

Separately, the source argued that the cumulative impact of the measures against all 26 amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment under article 7 of the Covenant, which prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Working Group replied that the substance of that claim had already been addressed through the specific allegations before it, without additional information about inhuman or degrading treatment.^[1] Article 7 does not appear in the disposition. The Working Group made no finding of torture, and Safronova's allegation stands as the source's unproven claim.

Alexander Evgenyevich Ivshin was convicted in February 2021 for singing religious songs with others, praying and discussing the Bible, and sentenced to seven years and six months; his petition to have that sentence reviewed, following a decision of the UN Human Rights Committee — a separate treaty body, distinct from the Working Group — was rejected.^[1]

Boris Ivanovich Andreev, arrested after his home was searched on 6 October 2022, spent 643 days in pretrial detention before being convicted in July 2024 and sentenced to six years.^[1] The source reported he has developed heart problems and a pre-stroke condition requiring monitoring practically impossible to obtain in detention, and later corrected the record: his cassation appeal — a further appeal asking a higher court to review legal errors in decisions already treated as final — was not pending, having been dismissed on 3 October 2024.^[1]

Ten of the 26 were detained in two Tomsk operations, in March and May 2025. According to the source, the charge against the four detained in May repeats verbatim the allegations brought against five of the six detained in March — the sixth, Vladimir Vladimirovich Pushkov, was charged with organizing rather than participating.^[1] Six others, three married couples, were prosecuted together in Kstovo: the Mikholaps and the Chernobaevs were detained there on 2 July 2024, while Vladimir Nikolaevich Anufriev and Anastasia Vladimirovna Anufrieva were detained the same day in Astrakhan Oblast and transferred more than 1,100 km to Kstovo.^[1]

Russia responded — nine days late

Russia did not stay silent. The Working Group sent its communication to the Government on 9 January 2026 and asked for information by 10 March 2026. The Government submitted its response on 19 March 2026, nine days after the deadline, without having requested an extension. The Working Group stated that it consequently could not accept the response as if it had been submitted within the time limit.^[1]

The opinion nevertheless records the Government's substantive argument. Russia said the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses and several other Witness organizations were designated as extremist organizations on the grounds provided for by article 9 of the Federal Law on countering extremist activity and associated instruments. That law, the Government explained, permits such designation where organizations engage in extremist activity that results in the violation of rights and freedoms, causes harm to individuals, the health of citizens, environment, public order, public safety, property or legitimate economic interests, or creates a real threat of causing such harm.^[1] On that basis, it argued, the individuals were charged for their engagement with proscribed organizations and were properly detained.^[1]

The Working Group found this insufficient. It noted that 24 of the 26 had been subjected to pretrial detention in some form, whether in their own homes or in detention centers, and that beyond a mention of "protective" or "preventive" measures the Government offered no explanation — concluding that the pretrial detention of those 24 violated article 9(3) of the Covenant, which requires that pretrial custody be the exception rather than the rule.^[1] On category II the Government said only that most were charged under Part 1 or 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code.^[1] On the discrimination claim under category V, it did not address the argument at all.^[1]

On the anti-extremism law itself, the Working Group concluded that "the law's breadth has been utilized to suppress the Jehovah's Witnesses for their exercise of their rights."^[1] On discrimination, it found "there is a pattern of discriminatory detention of Jehovah's Witnesses by the Government, including of the 26 individuals in the present case."^[1] It added that this case "is one of many concerning the Russian Federation over recent years in which it has found detention to be arbitrary, which may indicate a widespread practice of arbitrary deprivation of liberty in the country."^[1]

What the opinion asks for, and what it can compel

The Working Group said "the appropriate remedy would be to release the 26 individuals immediately and accord them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law."^[1] It also urged a full and independent investigation, and measures against those responsible.^[1]

None of that is enforceable. A Working Group opinion has no binding force of the kind a court judgment carries; it is the reasoned view of an expert panel, and compliance depends on the state. The opinion asks both the source and the Government to report back within six months on whether anyone has been released, whether compensation has been paid, and whether an investigation or any legal changes followed.^[1] Two members, Ganna Yudkivska and Miriam Estrada Castillo, took no part in the discussion of the case.^[1]

Jehovah's Witnesses publicized the opinion themselves: jw.org, the religion's official website,^[3] and jw-russia.org, a Witness-operated site covering Russia, which published its account on 7 July 2026.^[4]

The opinion records, from the information the source provided, that all 26 were charged and that 9 have been convicted in relation to their activities as Jehovah's Witnesses. It attaches no date to that figure.^[1] Separately, it records a later report from the source, dated 19 March 2026, that Oleg Vladimirovich Postnikov was convicted on 12 February 2026 by the Birobidzhan District Court and sentenced to six years and two months. He has appealed.^[1] The opinion does not say whether Postnikov is among the nine.