CASE
OPENED ABOUT
CONTINUED ACTIVITY OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' ORGANIZATION IN
BELGOROD
SOVA
Center
for
News and Analysis, 9 February 2018
On
7 February
2018, siloviki in Belgorod conducted a raid on homes of
Jehovah's Witnesses.
Two believers were arrested as suspects in a criminal case.
On
9 February
2018 it became known that in Belgorod a criminal case has been
opened on the
basis of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (planning the
activity of an
extremist organization) in connection with the work of the local
congregation
of Jehovah's Witnesses.
According
to a
report from the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, in
the evening of
7 February police and a SOBR [Special Rapid Response Unit]
conducted searches
in no fewer than 16 residences of believers. Bibles, electronic
equipment and
data storage devices, travel passports, money and in some cases
photographs
were seized from them. They themselves were taken to the
building of the
Investigation Directorate of the Russian Directorate of MID for
Belgorod
oblast, they were fingerprinted, and they were given summons for
interrogation.
Two citizens, Anatoly Shaliapin and Sergei Voikov, were detained
as suspects in
the case. . . .
From
our point
of view, the liquidation of the Jehovah's Witnesses
organizations for extremism
and prosecution of the members of their congregations do not
have legal bases
and are a clear manifestation of religious discrimination. (tr.
by PDS, posted
9 February 2018)
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