New searches in Kemerovo, believers were placed under house arrest

On July 24, 2019, the judge of the Central District Court of Kemerovo, Elena Lapina, sent two Kemerovo civilians, 58-year-old Sergey Yavushkin and 45-year-old Aleksandr Bondarchuk, under house arrest for one month and 27 days. Prior to that, they spent almost two days in a temporary detention center.

On July 22, at 6 a.m., officers of the Investigative Committee invaded their apartments with a second search. For the first time, believers were subjected to this humiliating procedure on January 23, 2018. According to investigator M. Nikitin, both defendants profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, and therefore participate in extremist activities. On July 18, 2019, a criminal case was opened against them under the article "Organization of the activities of an extremist organization" (part 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

This is not the first case of persecution for faith in the Kemerovo region. The epicenter of persecution was the city of Berezovsky. On July 22, 2018, Sergey Britvin and Vadim Levchuk were arrested there and sent to a pre-trial detention center . In February 2019, the court placed another resident of this city, Hassan Kogut, under house arrest. All of them are accused only of not ceasing to profess the religious views of Jehovah's Witnesses after the decision of the Supreme Court of April 20, 2017.

The wave of religious repression that has been going on in the Kemerovo region for the second year was a direct consequence of the fact that civilians were branded extremists for simply practicing religion. The Russian government emphasized that the views of Jehovah's Witnesses have never been declared criminal in Russia. The president of the country also spoke out against the persecution of them.