RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Ukrainian security service closes evangelical rehabilitation homes

IN UKRAINE CENTERS FOR DRUG ADDICTS ORGANIZED BY SECTARIANS LIQUIDATED

Interfax-Religiia, 24 March 2016

 

The Security Service of Ukraine [Sluzhba Bezopasnosti Ukrainy—SBU] liquidated two places of illegal housing of people in Kharkov province, which functioned under the guise of commercial rehabilitation centers for drug addicts.

 

The organizers were representatives of one of the sects. About 200 persons resided in the pseudo-rehabilitation centers. But there was no staff of doctors there, the SBU press center reports.

 

After receiving advance payments, the swindlers housed the patients in rented buildings and forcibly held them there until completion of the course of "treatment," which lasted at least nine months. The patients were not provided medical treatment at all, and the so-called psychological help consisted of constant prayers and "questionable religious rites."

 

"The so-called rehabilitation centers were more like prisons: eight persons lived in each of the rooms of 9 to 10 square meters. The windows had grids on them, or there were not any windows. There was fungus on the walls, and so forth. For the least infraction or an attempt to escape, people were beaten and placed in the basement," the report says.

 

It was permitted to phone relatives extremely rarely, and only in the presence of instructors. Going outside the building was strictly forbidden. The "preachers" urged relatives of the patients to cut off communication with them during the period of "treatment." (tr. by PDS, posted 26 March 2016)


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