Yoga teacher Dmitry Ugai appears in court over charges he violated a new law banning missionary activity. Photograph: Peter Kovalev/TASS
LTRP Note: Posted for informational and research purposes.
The Guardian (UK)
A yoga teacher in Russia has been charged with illegal missionary activity under a controversial new law designed to fight terrorism.
Computer programmer Dmitry Ugay was detained by police in St Petersburg in October while giving a talk at a festival about the philosophy behind yoga.
Ugay says he was stopped 40 minutes into his discussion, put into a car and taken to a police station without being informed of his apparent offence.
The 44-year-old now faces a fine for allegedly conducting illegal missionary activity, an administrative offence under the new Yarovaya law, a package of legal amendments intended to fight terrorism that is named after its author, the MP Irina Yarovaya.
Ugay’s court hearing in St Petersburg has been adjourned until next week, the state legal news agency Rapsi reported. Click here to continue reading.
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