Two believers beaten and ten sent to prison in the largest raid on Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Voronezh

More than 110 searches were carried out in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses on July 13, 2020. The homes are located across seven residential communities in the City of Voronezh region. At least two believers reported severe beatings for refusing to provide smartphone passwords. Ten men between the ages of 24 to 56 were sent to the pre-trial detention center. This news is being continuously updated.

What is known about the arrests and detentions of believers. On July 14 and 15, 2020, the Leninskiy District Court of Voronezh sent ten believers into custody for 1 month and 22 days (until September 3): Antyukhin Aleksey (44), Bayev Sergey (47), Veselov Mikhail (51), Galka Yuriy (44), Gurskiy Valeriy (56), Nerush Vitaly (41), Pankratov Stepan (24), Popov Igor (54), Sokolov Yevgeniy (44) and Yagupov Anatoliy (51).

On the day of the search these believers were taken to the building of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on Ordzhonikidze Street in Voronezh. They sat in a prisoner transport bus, and were taken one by one to the building, handcuffed to the escort. It became known that overnight they were sent to an isolation ward in the village of Nizhnedevitsk.

What is known about the beating of believers. Believers Aliaksandr Bokov and Dmitriy Katyrov were severely beaten and abused, as they refused to provide passwords from their mobile devices. During the search, 30-year-old Aleksandr Bokov was beaten at face, head and ribs by the guards, then he was forced to do push-ups on the floor and squat until he was exhausted. At that moment Aleksandr's friend, 23-year-old Dmitriy Katyrov, rang the doorbell. Law enforcers brought Dmitriy into the apartment, demanded the password from his device, and after the refusal they threw him on the floor and started beating his back and neck with their legs, breaking out hands and fingers to unlock the phone with his fingerprint. Because of what was happening, Aleksandr Bokov's wife got sick and needed the help of an ambulance team. The police threatened the believers with further beatings if they reported the beatings to the doctors. Later, after the interrogation, both believers were released. They documented the injuries at the medical facility to protest the law enforcement officers.

It is also known that during the storming of Yuriy Galka's apartment, after his front door was broken into, the law enforcement officers knocked him down and pressed him face to the floor. The damage he suffered is unknown, as he was sent to the pre-trial detention center.

What is known about the geography of searches and their number. The official press release the Investigation Committee reports 110 searches. of the Investigation Committee reports 110 searches. The raids were confirmed in the city of Voronezh, towns of Borisoglebsk, Lisky, Pavlovsk, Ramon, Semiluki, the villages of Nikolsky and Babyakovo. The search was also carried out in the city of Stary Oskol (Belgorod region) at a believer who moved there from Voronezh. A total of approximately 100 addresses searched were confirmed by local Jehovah's Witnesses, including apartment and workplaces, garages, and the like.

What is known about the manner in which the law enforcers conducted the searches. According to eyewitnesses, Rosgvardiya employees did not wear the means of epidemiological protection. However, they were armed with assault rifles. During the searches, the Bible, personal diaries, postcards, photographs, computers and telephones were seized from believers. Book volumes with verses by Joseph Brodsky and Bulat Okudzhava were also confiscated from one family. The search orders were issued by the Leninskiy District Court of Voronezh.

What is known about the way the interrogations were conducted. The majority of believers, at least 40, including women, were taken for interrogations to the Center for Counteracting Extremism, to Sredne-Moskovskaya Street in Voronezh. There, they were kept in a big hall under the supervision of armed gunmen and interrogated one by one. During the interrogations some of investigators exerted pressure and used foul language. At least one believer was beaten in the back of the head with his palm.

What do we know about a criminal case. On July 3, 2020, the 1st Department of Investigation of Special Cases of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Voronezh Region initiated 2 criminal cases under paragraph 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code against the above mentioned believers (Antyukhin, Bayev, Veselov, Galka, Gursky, Nerush, Pankratov, Popov, Sokolov, Jagupov). Ten days later, 2 cases were merged into one proceeding. The case is being investigated by investigator for especially important cases I. Bichev, with the active participation of the head of the department Andrey Shevelev. The investigation of the case is under control of the head of the regional investigation department.

The previous sad record for the number of searches was set by the law enforcement agencies of the Transbaikalia: on 10 February, they conducted searches in 50 houses of believers. Other anti-records were recorded in Sochi (36 searches) and Nizhny Novgorod (35 searches). Law enforcement officers from other regions participated in each of the raids. Following the Supreme Court decision against Jehovah's Witnesses, more than 1,000 believers' homes were searched as of mid-July 2020.

Voronezh Region became the 57th region of Russia (85 in total in Russia), where criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses were initiated.

The ban and liquidation of Jehovah's Witnesses legal entities in 2017 have long since escalated into real persecution of ordinary believers, most of whom have never been members of the liquidated legal entities. This legal "collision," as the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation put it, is crippling the lives of hundreds of people. Recently the number of criminal cases has increased significantly, with dozens of men and women behind bars. The believers await the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), where they have filed a complaint.