GUARDS
IN ORENBURG
PENAL COLONY BEAT FIVE BELIEVERS
Feliks
Makhammadiev
has a broken rib and injured lung and kidney
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 15 February 2020
On 6
February 2020, in
Orenburg, personnel of Correctional Penal Colony No. 1 beat
believers
Budenchuk, Makhammadiev, Miretsky, Gridasov, and German with
clubs and their
feet. As a result, one of them, Feliks Makhammadiev, has been
hospitalized. The
rest have been sent to a punishment cell on false charges.
The
believers were
beaten during their admission to the correctional labor colony
located on
Crimea Lane in Orenburg. The next day, physicians examined them.
Only after
Feliks Makhammadiev wrote a document to the effect that he "hurt
himself
in the restroom" was a first aid team summoned for him. He was
hospitalized and surgery was performed and a tube was inserted
into his lung to
remove fluid. Besides other things, analysis showed that
Makhammadiev was
malnourished (he has gluten intolerance and special food ordered
by a physician
was withheld from him by colony workers). The other believers
were moved to a
punishment cell on the basis of absurd false charges, for
example, "for
smoking in the wrong place" (Jehovah's Witnesses do not smoke
because of
religious convictions).
On 19
Sept3ember
2019, six Saratov believers were sentenced to terms of from two
to three and a
half years imprisonment by Judge Dmitry Larin of the Lenin
district court of
Saratov. Three months later, on 20 December 2019, the Saratov
oblast court left
the sentence in effect. Konstantin Bazhenov, the sixth believer,
was sent to
Correctional Penal Colony No. 3 in Ulianovsk oblast and
therefore he did not
suffer as a result of the incident in the Orenburg colony.
Correctional
Penal
Colony No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for
Orenburg oblast
is located in Orenburg at 119 Crimea Lane. The director of the
institution is
Internal Service Major Alexander Nikolaevich Grebennikov.
A year
ago, on 15
February 2019, seven peaceful Jehovah's Witnesses in Surgut were
subjected to
tortures—electric shock, asphyxiation, and refined beatings.
Under torture,
investigators forced them to answer questions about their
religious confession
and fellow believers. According to reports of the believers, an
investigation
is underway. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 February 2020)
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