AFTER 129 DAYS IN SIZO, THREE BELIEVERS PLACED UNDER HOUSE ARREST IN MAGADAN
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 5 October 2018
On 5 October 2018, the Magadan oblast court ordered the softening of the measure of restriction for 65-year-old Sergei Erkin, 41-year-old Evgeny Ziablov, and 41-year-old Ivan Puida, and placed them under house arrest. They were arrested on 30 May 2018 by personnel of the Investigation Department of the directorate of the F.S.B. of Russia for Magadan oblast.
Earlier, on 3 August 2018, a court placed under house arrest another defendant in this case, 31-year-old Konstantin Petrov, who also was arrested on 30 May.
All four face up to ten years of prison on the basis of the article on "planning the activity of an extremist society" (part 1, article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the RF). After the Russian Supreme Court liquidated and ruled to be "extremist" all 396 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, law enforcement agencies throughout the country have mistakenly interpreted peaceful meetings of believers as "extremist activity." In all, no fewer than 37 persons were placed in prison (SIZO or IVS), most of whom, 21 persons, are still in a SIZO, and the measure of restriction of the rest was softened. At the same time, in the European Court of Human Rights, the government of Russia maintains that the decision of the Supreme Court and an appellate determination, which left it in force, "do not gave an assessment of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses and do not contain restriction or prohibition of confessing individually the aforementioned teachings" (par 91). Dozens of rights advocates and also the Council on Human Rights under the Russian president have expressed concern over the growing religious repressions. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 October 2018)
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