Photo: search of Jehovah's Witnesses (archival photo)

Actions of Law Enforcement Officers

New searches on Sakhalin. A teenager and an elderly woman suffered from the actions of the security forces

Sakhalin Region

On October 17, 2019, in Kholmsk and Chekhov (Sakhalin Oblast), searches were carried out in three dwellings of believers. Early in the morning, representatives of the authorities under the leadership of Police Major Dmitry Orkin, an employee of the CPE of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, searched the homes of Oleg Tsimerman, Denis and Oksana Kholinykh in Kholmsk. The security forces also came to Denis's mother, Valentina Kholina, who lives in Chekhov. Electronic media were seized from all believers. The issue of initiating a criminal case is being decided.

The security forces came to the Kholin spouses at 7:00. They persistently knocked on the door, beat on the couple's car in the yard so that the alarm went off. When Denis opened the door, he was approached by 8 officers of the CPE, the FSB and the police, not counting the witnesses. The search lasted 4 hours. Representatives of the authorities seized the tablet of the 15-year-old son of the Kholins, who used it to prepare for exams and stored important educational materials on it. Denis's work phone and hard drive with work files were taken away, which, in fact, deprived his family of their livelihood.

Later, the couple learned that the 5-hour search was carried out on the same day at the home of Denis's mother, Valentina, who lives in the nearby town of Chekhov. A 68-year-old woman was very worried, her blood pressure rose. Valentina is outraged that the authorities are persecuting her family, although they have done no harm to anyone, but at the same time refuse to open a criminal case against the person responsible for the accident that recently killed Valentina's husband.

Earlier, on January 20, 2019, the FSB had already conducted mass searches of believers on Sakhalin. Criminal cases under Part 2 of Article 282.2 were initiated against Vyacheslav Ivanov, Dmitry Kulakov and his father Sergey.

Update. On November 18, 2019, it became known about 2 more searches in Kholmsk - at the homes of Alexander Pavlov and Valentina Guseva. The details of the incident are being clarified. Although the authorities officially refer to their actions as "ORM inspection of premises" (implying the voluntary consent of residents, as well as the fact that no criminal case has been initiated), in fact, searches are being conducted at believers' homes.