Russians detained for reading the Bible at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia mosque are now back in Russia

Source: TASS

Two Russian citizens detained at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia for reading the Bible flew home to Russia on the evening of July 17, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported, citing the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul. The diplomatic mission confirmed that the Filonovs had departed for Moscow on a scheduled flight at 7:50 p.m. local time.

As the Filonovs — Victoria, 35, and Igor, 32 — described in their own account, the couple had traveled from Moscow to Turkey on vacation. On July 14, they visited Hagia Sophia, where Igor took out a Bible he had brought with him and began reading it. They said they were surrounded, escorted out of the mosque, and taken to a police station in Istanbul’s Fatih district, and later transferred to a detention center for foreigners pending deportation. They were charged with inciting hatred, an offense punishable by six months to a year in prison, and now face possible deportation as well.

TASS sources said the Russians were detained after police received a report that they were reading the Bible aloud in the visitors’ area. Under Turkish law, conducting Christian religious rites or conspicuously reading non-Muslim religious literature inside an active mosque is treated as a violation of public order.

Built on the orders of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, Hagia Sophia was consecrated in 537. It was converted into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, then became a museum in the 1930s. In July 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree restoring its status as a mosque.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.

Why is it
important
to support
Meduza
now?Read here

Russians detained for reading the Bible at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia mosque are now back in Russia

{{ header_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }}

{{ title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }}

{{ second_title }}

Russians detained for reading the Bible at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia mosque are now back in Russia

{{{ alt }}}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }}

{{ title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }} {{ second_title }}

{{ title }}

{{ second_title }}