ROUND-UP OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN ROSTOV-ON-DON
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 22 May 2019
Early in the morning of 22 May 2019, personnel of law
enforcement
agencies burst into at least four apartments of Rostovians who
are suspected of
professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. Men and women
were arrested.
Several have been released and the fate of others is being
investigated.
When fifty-year-old Sergei Khotov opened the door,
security agents
forced him to the floor and pinned his arms behind his back.
Then they picked
him up and conducted a search in the apartment, seizing
electronic devices and
also a synodal edition of the Bible. The search was conducted
by agents of the
center for combating extremism of the chief directorate of the
Russian MVD for
Rostov oblast, including the deputy chief of the center with
the rank of police
lieutenant colonel. . . . (tr. by PDS, posted 22 May 2019)
TWO
MORE WOMEN SENT
TO SIZO FOR FAITH IN SMOLENSK Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 22 May 2019 On
18 May 2019,
Judge Liudmila Kuzub of the Lenin district court of the city
of Smolensk
ordered to imprison for a term of two months two women:
Tatiana Galkevich and
63-year-old Valentina Vladimirova. Before that, searches
were conducted in the
home of both. Although
ValentinaVladimirova
was arrested on the pretext of a theft in the home of the
prosecutor, during interrogation the investigator
immediately began asking
prepared questions about her religion. A case was opened
against the women on
the basis of part 2 of article 282.2 of the CC RF
(participation in extremist
activity). Then in her home a search was conducted, she was
interrogated, and
electronic devices were seized. Law
enforcement
agencies of Smolensk, like their colleagues in other Russian
cities, maintain
that peaceful believers are engaged in "arranging extremist
activity"
when they were merely reading the Bible and praying in a
private manner. The
government of the Russian Federation has confirmed that the
decisions of Russian
courts "do not contain restrictions or a ban on individually
professing
the aforesaid teaching [of Jehovah's Witnesses]." Vladimirova
and
Galkevich now are the seventh and eighth subjects of
criminal cases against
Jehovah's Witnesses in Smolensk. In late April 2019 four
believers were placed
in a SIZO and before that Maria Troshina and Natalia
Sorokina spent 191 days
behind bars. (tr. by PDS, posted 22 May 2019)
ALMOST YEAR-LONG STAY OF BELIEVERS BEHIND BARS ENDS IN SARATOV
Jehovah's
Witnesses in Russia, 21 May 2019
On 20 May 2019, the Frunze district court of the city of
Saratov, with
Judge Igor Diuzhakov presiding, released from custody in the
courtroom
Konstantin Bazhenov, Aleksei Budenchuk, and Feliks Makhammadiev,
who have been
in the SIZO since 12 June 2018. They are still charged under
article 282.2 (1)
of the CC of RF (organization of extremist activity), although
the measure of
restriction for them is changed to the prohibition of certain
actions. They
must wear bracelets and may not leave their home at night, nor
communicate with
other subjects of the criminal case, nor use the telephone and
internet.
The believers thanked the court, which finally
understood that there
are no grounds to keep peaceful citizens behind bars merely for
their religious
confession. In December 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin
noted that
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians and the reasons for their
prosecution are
incomprehensible. (tr. by PDS, posted 22 May 2019)
FOUR BELIEVERS PLACED IN CUSTODY FOR TWO MONTHS IN
VOLGOGRAD
Jehovah's
Witnesses in Russia, 21 May 2019
On 18 May 2019, Judge Andrei Oleinikov of the Central
district court of
the city of Volgograd ordered to put four peaceful citizens in
a SIZO for two
months; they were arrested during a raid on believers on 16
May 2019. Valery
Rogozin, Sergei Melnik, Igor Egozarian, and Viacheslav Osipov
were placed
behind bars merely because the authorities consider them to be
Jehovah's
Witnesses. All four are charged under part 2 of article 282.2
of the CC of
RF—participation in extremist activity.
Ivan Valkovsky, whose imprisonment was reported
earlier, was released
on the same day. Information about the detention of D.
Peresunko and V. Tarasov
(81 years old) has not been confirmed subsequently.
Surveillance, summons, and
interrogations of believers in the city are continuing. (tr.
by PDS, posted 22
May 2019)
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