Gender: Male
Perpetrator: Iran
Religion or Belief: Unknown
Date of Detainment: August//2025
Current Status: Not Released
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment
Mohammad Soltani
Extra Bio Info:
Mohammad Soltani is imprisoned for his religious expression.
In August 2025, Iranian authorities arrested Soltani for attending the memorial service of a man who was killed by government officials during nationwide protests in 2022.
In September 2025, authorities sentenced him to 6 years' imprisonment and 74 lashes for blasphemy and disrupting the public order.
Gender: Male
Perpetrator: Russia
Religion or Belief: Christian – Jehovah's Witness
Current Status: Not Released
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment
Aleksandr Neverov
Extra Bio Info:
Aleksandr Neverov is imprisoned for his religious activity.
In the winter of 2023, Russian authorities arrested Neverov for participating in Jehovah's Witness meetings, discussing religious texts, and recruiting new members.
In September 2025, the Proletarsky District Court of Saransk sentenced Neverov and Mikhail Shevchuk to 7 years' imprisonment for "organizing the activities of an extremist organization" (Art. 282.2 RCC).
Feb 20, 2026
In late October, President Donald Trump announced that he was designating Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, or CPC, in recognition of the horrific and worsening rash of religious violence that Africa’s most populous country has faced in recent years. In fact, USCIRF has recommended Nigeria’s CPC designation every year since 2009, highlighting the dangers of violent extremist groups, tensions between ethnic Fulani herder communities and Christian and Muslim farmers, mass abductions of schoolchildren that have become shockingly commonplace, and other escalating threats.
In this episode of USCIRF Spotlight, Supervisory Policy Analyst Kurt Werthmuller interviews Commissioners Maureen Ferguson and Mohamed Elsanousi to consider Nigeria’s designation as a CPC, the global and Nigerian response to that designation, and the road ahead for addressing the country’s ongoing religious freedom crisis.