IN ACCORDANCE WITH DEMANDS OF PROTOCOL
As was already reported earlier, on Thursday, 28 July, armed OMON and FSB personnel conducted a raid on a religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses during a worship service. According to a report from the press service of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, the siloviki [security forces] conducted "interrogations," throwing believers onto the floor, pinning people with knees and kicking them with feet, having previously taken their mobile phones from them.
According to testimony of believers, the raiders planted on the premises brochures that are included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. This was reported by Jehovah's Witnesses from Kostomuksha.
In the course of six days, there have been no official reports of what happened from either the press, authorities, or special services. Only on 3 August 2016 did there appear on the webpage of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the republic of Karelia a brief report to the effect that several days back in Petrozavodsk, as the result of a search activity operation, documents and 12 brochures from among those listed in the Federal List of Extremist Materials had been seized from the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.
According to the report on the website, at the present time law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation of an incident of discovery of forbidden literature. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 August 2016)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.