Additional Name(s): Костянтин Максимов

Gender: Male

Perpetrator: Russia

Religion or Belief: Christian – Orthodox

Sentence: 14 Years’ Imprisonment

Date of Detainment: May/16/2023

Date of Sentencing: August/3/2024

Current Status: Not Released

Religious Leader: Yes

Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment

Reason for Persecution: Religious Activity Religious Belief Religious Expression Religious Figure & Religious Leadership Role

Nature of Charges: Espionage

Kostiantyn Maksimov

Extra Bio Info:

Kostiantyn Maksimov is imprisoned for his religious belief.

On May 16, 2023, Russian forces in Russian-occupied Chongar, Ukraine, detained Maksimov, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as he was trying to cross into Russian-occupied Crimea. The head of the Russian Religious Organizations Department at the Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social and Political Communications and Information Policy Department told Forum 18 that Maksimov had not supported the integration of the Berdyansk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church into the Russian Orthodox Church, which had occurred days before his detainment.

In April 2024, the Russian-installed Prosecutor's Office of the Zaporizhzhia Region announced that Maksimov had been indicted for espionage (Art. 276 RCC) after it accused him of providing the location of Russian air defense systems to Ukrainian Security Services.

On August 2, 2024, the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court sentenced Maksimov to 14 years in prison for espionage (Art. 276 RCC).  

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Additional Name(s): 热依拉·达吾提, راھىلە داۋۇت

Gender: Female

Perpetrator: China

Ethnic Group: Uyghur

Religion or Belief: Unspecified

Reports of Torture: No

Reports of Medical Neglect: No

Sentence: Life Imprisonment

Date of Detainment: December//2017

Current Status: Not Released

Religious Leader: No

Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment

Reason for Persecution: Ethnoreligious Identity Religious Scholarship

Nature of Charges: Separatism

Rahile Dawut

Extra Bio Info:

Rahile Dawut is detained for her ethnoreligious identity and scholarship. 

In December 2017, authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) detained Dawut, Uyghur ethnographer and professor, and sent her to a detention facility. Dawut's detention came amid mass detentions of largely Muslim ethnic minorities in XUAR in 2017 and 2018.

In 2020, a court reportedly sentenced Dawut to life in prison for "splitting the state" in relation to her efforts to preserve Uyghur culture. 

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Additional Name(s): Aşyrbaý Bekiýew, Ашырбай Бекиев

Gender: Male

Perpetrator: Turkmenistan

Ethnic Group: Turkmen

Religion or Belief: Muslim – Sunni

Reports of Torture: No

Reports of Medical Neglect: No

Sentence: 23 Years' Imprisonment

Date of Detainment: May/16/2023

Current Status: Not Released

Religious Leader: No

Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment

Reason for Persecution: Religious Activity Religious Belief Transnational Repression

Nature of Charges: Unknown

Ashyrbay Bekiev

Extra Bio Info:

Ashyrbay Bekiev is imprisoned for his religious belief and activity. 

In August or September 2023, Turkmen authorities detained Bekiev after he had been deported from Russia following years of accusations by the Turkmen government that he was spreading religious extremism. Since 2009, when Bekiev had legally immigrated to Russia, Turkmen authorities had been harassing Bekiev's family in Turkmenistan for their peaceful religious activities. In 2015, Turkmen authorities had placed Bekiev on the country's wanted list for allegedly promoting extremist, "Wahhabi" ideology through religious classes with Turkmen students in Russia.

In October 2023, a court in Dashoguz sentenced Bekiev to 23 years' imprisonment.

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