Extra Bio Info:

Kostiantyn Maksimov is detained 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.

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. 

Extra Bio Info:

Ashyrbay Bekiev is imprisoned for his religious belief and activity. 

On May 16, 2023, Russian authorities in Volkhov, Leningrad region, detained Bekiev on illegal immigration charges after his passport had expired. Turkmen authorities, however, had sought Bekiev's extradition from Russia for alleged crimes related to his religious activity. In 2009, Bekiev had legally immigrated to Russia from Turkmenistan. Around that same time and the years following, Turkmen authorities had persecuted Bekiev's family in Turkmenistan for their peaceful religious activities. In December 2015, Turkmen authorities had placed Bekiev on the country's wanted list for allegedly promoting Islamic fundamentalism and seeking to spread extremist, "Wahhabi" ideas in Turkmenistan by conducting religious classes with Turkmen students in Russia. Human rights organizations argued the allegations were fabricated and that Bekiev engaged in peaceful religious activities outside of the Turkmen government's strict regime of control. In May 2016, Russian authorities subsequently arrested Bekiev and sought to deport him to Turkmenistan. However, in May 2017, the European Court of Human Rights suspended that extradition request, and Bekiev was released that same month.

On May 19, 2023, the Krasnoselsky District Court of St. Petersburg ordered Bekiev's deportation to Turkmenistan.

On August 30, 2023, Russian authorities deported Bekiev to Turkmenistan.

On October 7, 2023, it was reported that Bekiev had been located in a pretrial detention center in Dashoguz, Turkmenistan.

On October 12, 2023, it was reported that a court in Dashoguz sentenced Bekiev to 23 years in prison. Original reporting indicated that the court hearing had lasted 10 minutes but additional reports question that claim, proposing it was a closed trial instead. The charges brought against Bekiev are unknown, apart from accusations of "Islamic extremism."