Three Months Passed After the Beating of Five Believers in the Orenburg Colony. What Is Happening to Them Now?

According to data on May 4, 2020, Feliks Makhammadiyev, who had a damaged lung, is recovering in the prison hospital; the threat to life has passed. Believers Budenchuk, Miretskiy, Gridasov and German also report feeling better. They are forced to work ten hours a day.

The brutal beating took place on February 6, 2020, when Aleksey Budenchuk, Feliks Makhammadiyev, Aleksey Miretskiy, Roman Gridasov and Gennady German were admitted to Orenburg Correctional Colony No. 1.

Makhammadiev suffered more than others. He became ill and was hospitalized the next day. Because his ribs were broken and his lung was damaged, urgent surgery was needed. In addition, doctors revealed that Mahammadiev's body was starving: due to intolerance to a number of products, he, while in jail, could not eat enough. In the prison hospital, he has the opportunity to follow a diet.

Budenchuk, Miretsky, Gridasov and Herman have recovered from their beatings and are gradually adapting to the prison regime, although their chronic illnesses have worsened. In the colony, they are forced to work 10 hours a day, including in a sewing workshop. The lawyer of one of the believers said that due to the prison regime, believers do not have time to read letters of support and respond to them. In addition, the prison authorities imposed unreasonable penalties on them, for example, for not making a bed. However, the prosecutor's office, after checking on its own initiative, lifted most of the sanctions. Believers also challenge the actions of the prison administration, which the prosecutor's office did not pay attention to.

All five believers are not discouraged. They are supported by sympathetic residents of Orenburg, paying for food for them. They themselves and their relatives sincerely thank all those who are not indifferent for their support and help.

Saratov residents Konstantin Bazhenov, Aleksey Budenchuk, Gennady German, Roman Gridasov, Felix Makhammadiev, Aleksey Miretskiy were imprisoned as a result of an unfair accusation of extremism. (Bazhenov was transferred to correctional colony No. 3 in the Ulyanovsk region.) Such a serious violation of the rights of believers is a direct consequence of a terrible miscarriage of justice - the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to indiscriminately liquidate and ban all 396 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Law enforcement officers, driven by unknown motives, pass off the joint religion of law-abiding citizens for participation in the activities of an extremist organization. The problem was highlighted by the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation, prominent public figures of Russia, as well as international organizations - the European Union External Action Service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Jehovah's Witnesses have nothing to do with extremism and insist on their complete innocence. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that the decisions of the Russian courts on the liquidation and prohibition of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually."