New Searches for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Primorye; Believer Spends Two Days Behind Bars

On June 18, 2019, searches and detentions based on religious discrimination continued in the Primorsky Territory. In Ussuriysk, agents of the Investigation Committee of Russia searched the apartments of two persons suspected of practicing the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The men, Sergey Korolchuk and Dmitry Tishchenko, were stripped of their mobile phones and other electronic devices. At the same time, Sergey Korolchuk was detained and placed in a temporary detention center, where he stayed until June 20. During an interrogation, it was learned that Sergey had been under surveillance for a long time. He is charged under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation prohibiting the organizing of an “extremist organization.”