In Belarus, Human Rights Groups Protest Plan to Extradite Nikolay Makhalichev to Russia, Where He Faces Persecution for Faith

On March 16, 2020, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia sent Belarus a request for the extradition of Russian citizen Nikolai Makhalichev, 36, who is accused of erroneous religious views in his homeland. The believer has been in the Vitebsk pre-trial detention center for more than a month and can go to a Russian prison for up to 15 years. International and Belarusian human rights activists are convinced that the extradition to Russia and even confinement in a pre-trial detention center simply because of religious beliefs violate Belarusian law. “Nikolai Makhalichev has not committed any internationally recognizable criminal offense or anything which constitutes a crime under Belarusian law and is facing prosecution solely for exercising his right to freedom of religion,” Amnesty International said in its urgent action statement. “He should be immediately and unconditionally released.”

International and Belarusian human rights activists are convinced that extradition to Russia and even detention in a pre-trial detention center simply because of religious beliefs violate Belarusian legislation. "Nikolay Makhalichev has not committed any internationally recognized criminal offence or other offence that is classified as a crime under Belarusian law," Amnesty International said in an urgent statement. "He is being persecuted only because of his exercise of his right to freedom of religion and must be immediately and unconditionally released from detention."

"The extradition of Nikolai Makhalichev will violate both international agreements and the domestic legislation of the Republic of Belarus," the Belarusian human rights organization Human Constanta said in a statement. The authors of the publication explain that, according to Article 17 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus of January 4, 2010 No. 105-Z "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Republic of Belarus", foreigners cannot be expelled from the Republic of Belarus to a foreign state where their life or freedom is threatened due to their race, religion, citizenship, nationality, belonging to a particular social group or political opinion.

The case against Nikolay Makhalichev was initiated in Urai (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug) on January 31, 2019. On February 21, 2020, he was detained by Belarusian law enforcement officers near the border with Russia. On February 24, by the decision of the Deputy Prosecutor of the Gorodok District of the Vitebsk Region, A.N. Zaikin, the believer was sent to SIZO-2 of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. There he is waiting for the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Belarus on the issue of his extradition to Russia.

In addition to Makhalichev, another 22 people are being prosecuted in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug for their faith in Jehovah. In this region, there were cases of the most cruel treatment of believers. Some of them were tortured and forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital.