EUROPEAN
UNION
DEMANDS RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES CEASE ABUSE OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 17 March 2020
On 12
March 2020, a
joint declaration of 27 European states that are members of the
European Union
was distributed in Vienna (Austria) at a session of the
Permanent Council of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Another 6
countries that are not members of the EU joined the statement.
Among
other things,
the statement says: "Jehovah's Witnesses should have the
possibility to
peacefully enjoy their human rights, including the right to
freedom of religion
or convictions, freedom of association and peaceful assembly,
and freedom of
expressing opinion without discrimination. . . . We call the
government to drop
all charges from persons who were subjected without basis to
prosecution or
held accountable for exercising their human rights."
The
European Union
cited shocking statistics: "After the liquidation of all local
religious
organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, according to
reports, 869
searches were conducted in residences, 26 persons are detained
in pretrial
custody, 23 are under house arrest, 316 have been charged, and
29 have already
been convicted."
The
statement
enumerates the most egregious recent incidents of harsh
treatment of believers
on the part of Russian authorities: "According to reports of the
European
Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, which also were reflected in
reports of the
Forum 18 organization and articles in news media, on 6 February
2020 in
Orenburg personnel of the correctional colony No. 1 beat five
citizens (Aleksei
Budenchuk, Gennady German, Roman Gridasov, Feliks Makhammadiev,
and Aleksei
Miretsky). They all suffered serious injuries and one of them
needed
hospitalization. In addition, on 10 February 2020, according to
reports, Vadim
Kutsenko, before he was placed in custody, was subjected to
tortures. Law
enforcement personnel repeatedly beat and strangled him and also
zapped him
with electric shock, demanding information about other Jehovah's
Witnesses."
The
European Union
promised in the future "to closely monitor events developing
around the
Jehovah's Witnesses in the region of the OSCE." (tr. by PDS,
posted 17
March 2020)
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