Source: Forum 18, July 5, 2022
On June 16, Dzhankoi District Court in Russian-occupied Crimea rejected Emir Medzhitov’s appeal against a fine of three weeks’ average local wages for leading Friday prayers in a mosque. His public defender Aider Suleimanov insisted that the prosecution had not proved that Medzhitov had conducted the “missionary activity” for which he was punished. “It turns out that Emir was punished simply for conducting communal prayers,” Suleimanov complained.
Dzhankoi District Prosecutor’s Office official Natalya Tishchenko—who led the case in court—put the phone down when Forum 18 asked why the Prosecutor’s Office had opened a case against Medzhitov at the instigation of Russia’s FSB security service and why he had been prosecuted and punished for exercising freedom of religion or belief.
The full article describes cases affecting both Muslims and Christians persecuted under the Russian law against missionary activity.
Note that the political status of Crimea is disputed.
Elsewhere, in historically tolerant Switzerland, evangelical churches are appealing a ruling against conducting baptisms on Lake Geneva’s public beaches (Evangelical Focus).