[{"body":"\n","date":"2026-05-28T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/650.html","regions":["switzerland"],"tags":["un-working-group","international-community","international"],"title":"Opinions Adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at Its 105th Session, March 23–April 1, 2026","type":"docs"},{"body":"Unlawful deprivation of liberty, criminal prosecution for peaceful practice of faith, and discriminatory persecution on religious grounds — these violations were documented by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention with respect to 26 Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. The relevant opinion was adopted by the body on March 30, 2026. The full text is available on the official website.\nThe full text of the opinion in English is available on the official website. A Russian translation is also available. The cases cover events from 2018 to 2025 and concern 19 men and 7 women from Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kstovo (Nizhny Novgorod Region), Birobidzhan, Konakovo (Tver Region), Prokopyevsk (Kemerovo Region), Rubtsovsk (Altai Territory), Kostroma, Moscow, Astrakhan, Kholmskaya (Krasnodar Territory), and Yaroslavskiy (Primorye Territory). Most are still held in pretrial detention; others are already serving actual prison terms in penal colonies. Only one of the applicants is currently not behind bars — Oleg Postnikov. His criminal case has been sent for retrial.\n\u0026quot;The Working Group is particularly concerned that, according to available information, 17 of the persons mentioned have been continuously subjected to some form of deprivation of liberty before trial for several years, beginning in 2019. This further exacerbates the severity of the unjustified use of preventive measures against them,\u0026quot; the opinion states (§ 129). Among those whose detention has lasted for years are 68-year-old Aleksandr Ivshin (more than 5 years), 60-year-old Anna Safronova (over 4 years), and 57-year-old Andrey Vlasov (about 4 years).\nThe Working Group determined that the criminal prosecution of the applicants was a direct result of the believers exercising their freedom of religion, expression, and peaceful assembly. \u0026quot;Searches, detentions, charges brought, and remand in custody were applied against numerous followers of this religion, often solely due to their participation in joint meetings for worship. No substantiated counterarguments have been presented [...]. These cases indicate the existence of a practice of discriminatory detention and deprivation of liberty of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses,\u0026quot; the opinion states (§§ 143, 144).\nThe experts demanded that Russia immediately release all 26 applicants, grant them the right to compensation, conduct a full and independent investigation, and take measures against those responsible for the unlawful detentions. At the same time, the group pointed to the need to bring legislation and law enforcement practice in line with the country\u0026#39;s international obligations.\nThis is already the fourth instance in which the UN Working Group condemns the persecution of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses in Russia. Although opinions of the UN Working Group are not decisions of an international court, the Russian authorities are not entitled to ignore them. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, in its Order of June 9, 2015 No. 1276-O, noted that the Russian Federation is required to give due consideration to such findings and to review the issue of restoring violated rights, up to revising court decisions that resulted in the established violation. How the authorities will respond to the new opinion of the Working Group remains to be seen. Russia has 6 months to provide information about the measures taken.\n","category":"rights","date":"2026-03-30T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2026/07/070850/image_hu_5b07e79946eef0fc.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2026/07/070850/image.jpg","webp":"/news/2026/07/070850/image_hu_ba1022958e431c8c.webp","webp2x":"/news/2026/07/070850/image_hu_4ba8c7a949044f56.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2026/07/070850.html","regions":["novosibirsk","tomsk","nizhegorod","jewish","tver","kemerovo","altaisky","kostroma","moscow","astrakhan","krasnodar","primorye","switzerland"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["un-working-group","liberty-deprivation","sizo","international"],"title":"UN Working Group Condemns \"Pattern of Discriminatory Detention of Jehovah's Witnesses\" and Demands Their Immediate Release","type":"news"},{"body":"The liquidation of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Elista and the confiscation of its property violated the applicant's rights to freedom of religion and association. Russia is obliged to reconsider this decision and compensate the applicant for losses.\n","date":"2025-06-09T16:09:51+03:00","permalink":"/en/docs/548.html","regions":["kalmykia"],"tags":["unhrc","international-community","international","mro","liquidation"],"title":"Views of the UN Human Rights Committee on the liquidation of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Elista","type":"docs"},{"body":"The liquidation of the Abinsk religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses violated the applicant's rights to freedom of religion; the wording in the Russian law on extremism is too vague. Russia is obliged to reconsider the decision to liquidate and take measures to prevent similar violations in the future.\n","date":"2025-06-09T15:54:06+03:00","permalink":"/en/docs/547.html","regions":["krasnodar"],"tags":["unhrc","international-community","international","mro","liquidation"],"title":"Views of the UN Human Rights Committee on the liquidation of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Abinsk","type":"docs"},{"body":"Courts continue to send Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses to prison, and the sentence of three of them has set a new record for severity. There have been cases of violence and torture, the proportion of the elderly among the \u0026quot;prisoners of conscience\u0026quot; has increased, there are people with severe disabilities, one of whom died shortly after the verdict; the trend of prosecuting entire families continues. Read about these and other findings for 2024 in this article.\nYear in numbers Judges announce the decision in the case of five believers in Moscow As of December 16, 2024, since the beginning of the year, Russian security forces have conducted at least 96 searches in the homes of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses — 17 in Crimea being the highest number. The total number of raids since the ban reached 2157.\nDuring 2024, 41 persons were made defendants in new criminal cases, of which 19 went through various types of detention, 15 of them are still behind bars. Last year, criminal cases were initiated against 100 believers.\nSentences were handed down to 116 believers. 43 of them (37%) were sentenced to imprisonment (It is noteworthy that this year nine people were sent to forced labor as a punishment). Terms of more than five years were given to 24 people (or almost 56% of those sentenced to imprisonment).\nSince 2017, 842 people have already been prosecuted; 450 of them have spent at least 1 day in custody. Currently, 147 prisoners of conscience are behind bars, either already convicted or awaiting sentencing. Of the 27 prisoners released from colonies, 8 were released this year. Although they have served their main sentence, most continue to experience numerous difficulties due to additional restrictions imposed by the court, which can last up to eight years or sometimes even more. \u0026quot;The cumulative numbers and severity of custodial sentences are increasing. To put it simply, during this year they imprisoned less, but more severely,\u0026quot; Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses, commented on the statistics.\nIn 2024, the court handed down record-breaking sentences against three Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. Khabarovsk residents Nikolay Polevodov, Vitaliy Zhuk and Stanislav Kim received eight years and six months, eight years and four months, eight years and two months in a penal colony, respectively. After about three months the court of appeal changed the punishment from imprisonment to a suspended sentence for shorter terms. Therefore, the longest term in 2024 was given to Alexander Chagan from Tolyatti — eight years in a penal colony. All in all, six believers have received such a harsh sentence since 2017.\nThe administration of the pretrial detention center forwarded 93 letters to Nikolay Polevodov, which arrived after his release from detention Over the seven years of mass persecution of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses, the number of people sentenced has reached 543, and 186 believers have been imprisoned. Almost 61% of them (113 people) received terms of more than five years.\nIn 13 regions of Russia, the average term of imprisonment is 6 years or more. This is especially true with the southern territories — the Astrakhan, Rostov, Volgograd Regions, Crimea, and Sevastopol. For comparison: according to the official statistics of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of Russia for 2023, of the 1297 people convicted for intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, only 0.85% (11 people) were sentenced to terms of five to eight years. Most were sentenced to terms of two to three years. It seems that from the point of view of the Russian judicial system, Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses are more dangerous than those who beat people to the point of disability. At the same time, hundreds of trials against Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses accused of extremism have not confirmed a single fact of extremist activity on the part of the believers.\nHunting the Elderly Of the new defendants who appeared in 2024, eight are over 60 years old, the oldest is 74 (Nina Smirnova). In total, among those charged with extremism, 235 people (156 men and 79 women) belong to this age category — this is almost 28% of all those prosecuted. \u0026quot;Up until last December, this share was 26%, and it increased by 2% in 2024. It may not seem much, but there are real people behind the numbers, whose freedom, health and even life are under threat,\u0026quot; said Yaroslav Sivulskiy. \u0026quot;Unfortunately, during criminal proceedings, 9 elderly men and women have already died. One of them — Aleksandr Lubin who was seriously ill. He died a month after his verdict was announced.\u0026quot;\nDuring the court hearings, Lubin had to lie down on a bench to recover his breath \u0026quot;He was very anxious on the days of the court hearings. Afterwards he and his wife needed a couple of days to recover, he had to lie down almost all the time on these days,\u0026quot; Lubin\u0026#39;s lawyer said. \u0026quot;Over the course of the year, his illness progressed and in December he was hospitalized, where he stayed longer than usual. After discharge, his condition remained serious.\u0026quot;\nShortly before his death, Lubin said in court: \u0026quot;It was very painful for me to see how elderly witnesses were interrogated during court hearings in my case. The investigation seemed to deliberately select those who were over 80. They no longer see and hear well; they do not understand many words. Therefore, it gave the impression that the investigators drew up the interrogation protocols at their own discretion.\u0026quot;\nSince the beginning of the persecution, 13 believers have already died: 3 women and 10 men. As of the end of 2024, 27 believers over the age of 60 are being held in colonies, pretrial detention centers, and special detention centers for persons sentenced to forced labor. For example, Boris Andreyev, 73, who was sentenced to six years in a penal colony (he is suspected of having cancer), and Anatoliy Marunov, 71, who received six and a half years in a penal colony, remain behind bars. \u0026quot;The oldest of all the convicted Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses is Yuriy Yuskov. When the suspended sentence imposed on him ends, he will be 90 years old. The oldest defendant is Elena Zayshchuk, 90\u0026quot; said Yaroslav Sivulskiy.\nOne of the examples when the courts did not even try to create the appearance of legality of the process is the case of Tatyana Piskareva. She is 68 years old, and for the past few months she has been held in the correctional center at colony-settlement No 3 for the Oryol Region. In the spring of 2024, the court sentenced her to two and a half years of forced labor, a type of punishment that, as expressly stated in Article 53.1 of the Criminal Code, is not imposed on old-age pensioners. Tatyana mentioned this in her appeal. However, as said in the decision of the appeal court, \u0026quot;the requirements of Article 53.1 of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation were observed by the court.\u0026quot;\nAndrey Vlasov participates in the court hearing via video conferencing from the penal colony Andrey Vlasov, 56, who has a severe disability, has already been in prison for more than two and a half years. He was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony, and the courts deny him early release, despite his rapidly deteriorating health. He is practically unable to move his joints. He experiences constant pain, which is why even everyday tasks — for example, putting on underwear — are very difficult. Some tasks that are simple for a healthy person are completely beyond Vlasov\u0026#39;s strength. He has already fallen several times and could not get up on his own. According to the surgeon, Andrey needs an operation. Failure to do so will lead to an ischemic stroke of the spinal cord and paralysis of the limbs.\nMoreover, the Russian law enforcement system is not lenient to those who are younger, but whose health also requires a special approach. Vladimir Fomin, 44, who is disabled, has been in a pretrial detention center since the end of March 2024. According to his lawyer, Fomin\u0026#39;s condition is getting worse — his chronic illnesses have been exacerbated, and there is no proper treatment. During one of the hearings, he lost consciousness, an ambulance had to be called.\nTorture and Violence In 2024, four cases of violence by law enforcement officers became known. Also, one case of torture in a place of detention was recorded against convicted Rinat Kiramov of Akhtubinsk. The prisoners demanded that Rinat give the names of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses living in Akhtubinsk.\nRinat Kiramov speaks in court Rinat\u0026rsquo;s wife Galina is waiting in the corridor for the decision of the court of cassation Did the pressure achieve its goal? \u0026quot;After beatings and torture, Rinat does not feel that he is a victim. On the contrary, he feels great joy, because he endured everything with dignity, \u0026quot;said Kiramov\u0026#39;s wife Galina shortly after the events described.\nDuring raids in Omsk in March 2024, security forces beat Sergey Rygaev and Leonid Pyzhov.\nIn the same month, during a search in Tolyatti, Sergey Fedorov was beaten and detained. He is still behind bars.\nOn September 16, during raids in Samara, law enforcement officers had been using force against one of the believers for several hours. At some point, the man lost consciousness.\nOn December 5, during searches in Moscow, the security forces hit one believer on the head and abdomen, and broke his nose.\nProsecution of Families Vladimir and Anastasiya Anufriyev, as well as two other families involved in the case, can now only see each other during trials, in a special box for defendants The number of families where more than one person was prosecuted for their faith has exceeded 80. At least nine of them were added in 2024. In one of the cases, three married couples were made defendants at once — Vladimir and Anastasiya Anufriyev, Viktor and Alena Chernobaev, as well as Andrey Mikholap and his wife Oksana. All of them are in pretrial detention at the time of writing.\nIn December 2024 , Kristina Golik, Valentina Yermilova and Yekaterina Olshevskaya were sentenced to forced labor. Earlier, their husbands received long prison terms and are serving their sentences in a penal colony. Before the verdict was announced Yekaterina stated in court: \u0026quot;My husband and my father are imprisoned under the same article. I can see my husband only a few times a year. My son, who is four years old, misses his dad very much and is constantly worried that I will also be sent to prison. Every time he accompanies me to court, my young son asks: \u0026#39;Mom, will you return home today?\u0026#39;\u0026quot;\nIn January 2024, the court separated Aram Danielyan from his wife and young son. The believer was sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony Similar concerns were expressed by Kristina Golik: \u0026quot;My husband will be released in 2027, after which his freedom will be restricted for another year, and he will have a further eight years of administrative supervision. If I am given a prison sentence, then I will have to serve it... The question is: after how many years will we be reunited? I\u0026#39;m scared to even think about it.\u0026quot;\nHowever, the issue of destroying the families of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses turned out to be insignificant for the court — if the sentence enters into force, the believers will have to serve their sentences in a special institution for carrying out forced labor.\nRepressions Against Convicted Persons With the passage of time, law enforcement officers find new ways to put pressure on those who are imprisoned for their faith. For the first time since 2017, one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses Viktor Stashevsky ended up in regular prison (not to confuse with a penal colony). Prior to that, he was held under strict detention conditions on the basis of penalties, most of which he was unaware of.\nDetention in strict conditions of imprisonment — placement in a punishment cell, CTF and SCTF — is a frequent practice in the cases of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. According to the rules, a prisoner should not be kept in such a room for more than 15 days, but in practice the punishment is extended, so that believers are kept in strict conditions for months. For example, Alam Aliyev, sentenced to six and a half years in a penal colony, has already been held for almost six months under strict detention conditions in IK-8 for the Amur Region. This is not compatible with the state of his health — he has diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, cardiac and neurological disorders.\nOften, the conditions for imprisoned Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses are hardened on the basis of fabricated or far-fetched violations. The reason may be an unfastened button or the absence of a tag with the prisoner\u0026#39;s name on the cabinet. Sometimes the prisoner does not even know what violations he is charged with. Such penalties are used as grounds for denying believers visits from relatives and make it almost impossible for them to be released on parole. It happens that in a particular colony there is no room corresponding to the punishment. In this case, prisoners are transported to another (sometimes remote) region, to a colony where such a room exists. This limits the possibility to see relatives and receive parcels.\nConcerned people support those who are unjustly convicted with letters. However, censorship does not allow everything to pass through, cutting out or crossing out part of the text There are also specific methods of pressure — when believers are deprived of the opportunity to read the Bible. Often this is done under the pretext that the book does not have a stamp of approval from the Russian Orthodox Church. In the case of Andrey Danielyan and the abovementioned Rinat Kiramov, the FSIN officers went even further — personal copies of the Bible were seized not only from them, but also from all other prisoners. Kiramov\u0026#39;s relatives said that before that, other convicts lent Rinat their copies, but the colony staff forbade them to do so. Not only the Bible was confiscated from Danielyan, but also a personal notebook with quotes from this book.\nPracticing their religion can even result in a new term for a prisoner, as in the case of Dmitriy Terebilov from Kostroma. He became acquainted with the Bible many years ago in the penal colony. Thanks to his new knowledge, Dmitriy changed so much that the administration of the institution itself petitioned for his early release. After his release he became one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. Later, Dmitriy was convicted again, this time for his faith. On September 5, his term of imprisonment expired but he was not freed. A new criminal case was initiated against him for answering questions from a cellmate about the beliefs of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. Now Dmitry is in a pretrial detention center and awaiting another trial. He faces an extension of his term from three to 10 years.\nNew Acquittal In 2024, Ruslan Atakuyev, judge of the Mayskiy District Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, found Kirill Gushchin not guilty of extremism. This decision withstood the courts of appeal and cassation, and the prosecutor\u0026#39;s office made an official apology. Since 2017, various courts have issued a total of 10 acquittals, but until that moment, only two of them were not overturned. In May 2021, the same Mayskiy District Court acquitted Yuriy Zalipayev.\nKabardino-Balkaria is the only region in Russia where Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses have effectively been acquitted.\nKirill Gushchin leaves the courthouse after the announcement of his acquittal, he was greeted by a large support group International Support In the summer 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of 16 Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses who were subjected to illegal searches, arrests, and convictions for their religion in Russia. Although Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights back in 2022, the Russian Federation is still obliged to pay compensation assigned to believers.\nOn October 24, 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee issued two opinions in favor of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses regarding the rulings to liquidate the local religious organizations (LROs) in Abinsk and Elista. In Russia, these rulings became precedent for the beginning of religious persecution, and a former member of the Abinsk LRO, the elderly Aleksandr Ivshin, is serving time for his faith in a penal colony.\nThe UN Human Rights Committee emphasizes that there are no calls for violence or other information inciting hatred in the literature of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. In both cases, Russia violated the right of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses to \u0026quot;freedom of thought, conscience and religion\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;the right to freedom of assembly\u0026quot; (Articles 18.1 and 22.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights).\nThe Committee ordered Russia to reconsider the decisions on the ban and ordered it to \u0026quot;take all necessary steps to avoid similar violations in the future.\u0026quot; During 2024, hearings were held in Russia on this issue, but the Committee\u0026#39;s orders were never carried out. Moreover, after the publication of the Opinion of the Human Rights Committee on the liquidation of a religious organization in Abinsk, local security forces initiated a criminal case against Valeriy Baylo, 66 at that time, — for participating in the activity of the Abinsk LRO. The court sentenced the believer to two and a half years in a penal colony. Now he is in custody and is awaiting the decision of the court of appeal.\nAnd in June 2024, the Elista City Court found three women guilty of participating in the activity of the Elista LRO and gave Kishta Tutinova a three-year suspended sentence, and Yekaterina Menkova and Tsagan Khalgaeva two years suspended. The court of appeal toughened the sentence.\nNadezhda Korobochko Back in 2019, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Russian authorities to \u0026quot;drop the charges and release all those detained for exercising their rights to freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, as well as the right to peaceful assembly and association.\u0026quot; It is obvious that the demands of the international community have not been met. However, this pressure — imprisonment, risk to health and sometimes even life — does not deprive Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses of their courage. Nadezhda Korobochko, 80, speaking in court before the verdict was announced, expressed the attitude of the majority of those prosecuted for their faith: \u0026quot;As long as I am alive, I will study the Bible. As long as I am alive, I will share the knowledge of God with other people, and nothing can make me give up my faith in God.\u0026quot;\n","category":"analytics","date":"2024-12-23T08:27:03+02:00","duration":"2:13","image":{"jpg":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_f03b9c8adeb026a6.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_990bd52f1e0b72a9.jpg","webp":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_2b62cd40b10aba1b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_588887d1ec686d5c.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2024/12/230900.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["review","statistics","torture","search","siloviks-violence","torture-conditions","families","prison-treatment","shizo","strict-conditions","letters","acquittal","international","unhrc","echr","died","elderly","disability"],"title":"\"They imprison less, but more severely.\" Repressions against Jehovah's Witnesses: 2024 Overview","type":"video"},{"body":"In 2023, the number of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses criminally prosecuted for their faith reached almost 800, and the number of searches exceeded 2,000. Cases are fabricated against the elderly, women and the disabled. More than a quarter of all prosecuted are persons over 60 years of age. By the end of the year, there were already six Jehovah’s Witness women in penal colonies. The tendency to prosecute entire families has increased. The length of imprisonment requested by prosecutors has reached 10 years. Statistics and details are included in this article. The Year in Numbers As of December 25, 2023, the total number of homes of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses searched is 2,058. In 2023, law enforcement officers raided 183 addresses, 43 people were detained, 15 of whom have been or are still in pretrial detention. During the year, Russian courts issued rulings regarding 147 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 47 of whom were sentenced to imprisonment for a cumulative term of more than 257 years (the previous year 44 people were sentenced to a cumulative term of 244 years in penal colonies). Thirty-three people received sentences in penal colonies of 6 years or more. Of these, the longest term of 8 years in a penal colony was given to Dmitriy Barmakin, whose story will be discussed below. On December 22, 2023, the court sentenced Aleksandr Rumyantsev from Moscow to 7.5 years in penal colony (Sean Pike, a citizen of Guyana, and Eduard Sviridov from Moscow, are in the same case and were sentenced to 7 and 6.5 years in a penal colony, respectively). Astrakhan residents Rinat Kiramov, Sergey Korolev and Sergey Kosyanenko, as well as Aleksandr Skvortsov from Taganrog and Evgeniy Bushev from Chelyabinsk received 7 years of imprisonment. In the Bushev case, it took the court just five sessions to conclude that talking about a Bible topic is such a serious crime. Later, it turned out that an officer of the National Guard had participated in the conversation, pretending to be interested in the Bible. On December 19, 2023, a court in Novosibirsk sentenced Marina Chaplykina to 4 years in a penal colony. She became the sixth woman from among Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses to receive a prison sentence for their faith.\nEight of Jehovah’s Witnesses were released from prison this past year. Seventy-nine people remain in penal colonies.\n\"The believers trials do not end with being released from the penal colony,\" explains Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses. \"The believers continue to serve additional punishments. For example, during a period appointed by the court, they cannot leave their place of residence. An electronic tracking bracelet is put on the ankle of some for many months, by which the authorities track the location of the person. This device must not be removed. After serving their sentences many are forbidden from working in certain areas, such as education.\"\nThe total number of criminal cases initiated against believers since 2017 has reached 376. The defendants amount to 789 people; 444 believers were convicted, 141 of whom received imprisonment. In all cases, there are no victims, actual crimes or evidence of illegal actions. The cases are initiated for ordinary religious activities: praying, reading the Bible, singing religious songs, etc. Most of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who are prosecuted for their faith are included in the list of extremists and terrorists maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring). The state imposes a number of serious economic restrictions on those who are listed on it; for example, their bank accounts are blocked, which makes it difficult to receive salaries, pensions and complete other transactions. At the time of publication of this article, there are 521 believers on the list, 72 of whom were added to the list in 2023.\nTerms are Breaking Records In Magadan, the case of 13 believers, including Ivan Puyda, the son and grandson of Jehovah’s Witnesses who had been repressed under Soviet rule, reached its conclusion. Now he too could receive a lengthy sentence – 10 years. That is how much the prosecutor requested in the closing arguments on November 24, 2023.\nIf Puyda gets 10 years in prison, it will be a unprecedented record in the cases of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses. Currently, the maximum term in a penal colony is 8 years, and five believers are serving this: Aleksey Berchuk, Rustam Diarov, Yevgeniy Ivanov and Sergey Klikunov.\nOn December 4, 2023, in Irkutsk, the prosecutor requested terms ranging from 3 to 7 years for a group of nine Jehovah’s Witnesses, the longest for Yaroslav Kalin, Nikolay Martynov, Aleksey Solnechny and Sergey Kosteyev. Yaroslav Kalin also comes from a family of those repressed for their faith. Kalin’s lawyer said: \"My client is being tried for the same thing for which his parents were exiled to Siberia, more than 70 years ago.\" Ironically, Kalin’s parents have been officially exonerated, but their son is now being tried for the same \"crime\".\nNew Regions In 2023, the territory affected by prosecutions has expanded. In February, the first searches in the Leningrad Region took place in the cities of Kingisepp and Slantsy, five people were detained and a criminal case was initiated. On April 4, 2023, searches were carried out for the first time in St. Petersburg.\nAt the end of February, searches in at least three addresses took place in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. Kishta Tutinova, 62, was detained, and after 2 days behind bars she was placed under house arrest.\nIn total, Jehovah’s Witnesses are already being prosecuted in 74 regions of the Russian Federation.\nVladimir Piskarev, Vladimir Melnik and Artur Putintsev were kept in a cage during their trial in Oryol Aleksandr Skortsov and Valeriy Tibiy did not lose heart despite unjust prosecution Konstantin Sannikov in the so-called \u0026#34;aquarium\u0026#34; — an enclosure where usually especially dangerous criminals are held during the trial During the announcement of the verdict, the bailiff handcuffs the seriously ill Vladimir Balabkin Sergey Klimov with his wife immediately after his release from the penal colony Defendants in the case of Tchaikovsky and others in Moscow are taken into custody after the verdict is announced Aleksandr Nikolayev with his wife and daughters after his release from the penal colony Convicted residents of Gukovo communicate via video call from the pretrial detention center with the group of supporters that came to the cassation hearing On the day of Yuriy Savelyev’s release from the penal colony, he was met by a large group of supporters Rustam Seidkuliev’s wife and friends are taking pictures with him after his release from the penal colony in Saratov From left to right: Sergey Kosyanenko, Rinat Kiramov and Sergey Korolev behind bars in the courtroom Muscovites Anatoliy Marunov, Sergey Tolokonnikov and Roman Mareyev were sentenced to long terms for their faith In Surgut, friends came to the courthouse to support their convicted fellow believers, on the day of the verdict. Outdoor temperature was -29°C Marina married Sergey Shulyarenko, convicted for his faith, right in the penal colony Prosecution of the Elderly and Disabled Almost 26% of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been prosecuted for their faith since 2017 (205 people) are over 60 years old. Criminal cases were initiated against 17 believers in this category in 2023. The oldest of them is 85 years old (the youngest is 19 years old).\nLaw enforcement officers and judges are not troubled by the age, serious illnesses or disabilities of those they accuse. So, on September 13 of this year, a court in the Amur Region sentenced Vladimir Balabkin, 71, suffering from cancer, to 4 years in a penal colony (the prosecutor had requested 2.5 times longer). Immediately after the verdict, he was taken into custody. About three months later, on December 19, 2023, the court of appeal replaced the sentence with a a 1-year suspended sentence, and the believer was released.\nOn September 14, 2023, the Maykop City Court sent 68-year-old Nikolay Voishchev to a penal colony. Even before his arrest, he was diagnosed with a tumor that required immediate treatment. While in prison he is not receiving the adequate medical care he still needs.\nIn the Novosibirsk Region, Andrey Vlasov, a 54-year-old disabled person, continues to serve his sentence for his faith. He suffers from serious illnesses, including deforming arthrosis of both hip joints, which makes it impossible for him to take care of himself. But both the court of appeal and the court of cassation upheld the guilty verdict.\nRepression of Entire Families By the end of the year, more than 70 families in 35 regions of the Russian Federation had become easy prey for law enforcement officers, for whom this is often an easy way to improve their performance and move up the career ladder. In some cases, the husband and wife were sent to prison at the same time, for example, Yelena and Georgiy Nikulin from Saransk. Both received more than 4 years in a penal colony.\n\"Other family members who are not under investigation are also subjected to direct or indirect pressure. After the searches, the security forces interrogate them, threaten to imprison them or a relative if they do not begin to give the investigation the testimony requested against their relative and fellow believers. Simply put, they are invited to become secret agents, to conduct covert audio and video recordings of how believers discuss Bible teachings, pray and sing religious songs together, in order to later call it \"the activity of a banned religious organization,\" says Yaroslav Sivulskiy. \"Another form of indirect pressure on relatives is denying visits to imprisoned family members.\"\nReversal of Acquittals One of the significant trends of 2023 was canceling the acquittals of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This happened on July 6, 2023, with the case of Aleksandr Pryanikov and Venera and Darya Dulova; the case reached the Supreme Court, which overturned the acquittal, although before that the Sverdlovsk Regional Court had twice overturned the guilty verdicts.\nIn the case of Ivan Sorokin and Andrey Zhukov in Yugorsk, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, the acquittal was overturned on November 20, 2023.\nDmitriy Barmakin from Vladivostok became the first Russian Jehovah’s Witness to be acquitted in a criminal case for his faith on November 22, 2021. This decision lasted only until April 27, 2023, when the same court, the Pervorechensky District Court of Vladivostok, sentenced the believer to 8 years in a penal colony. However, later, on August 8, 2023, the Primorsky Regional Court overturned this decision and sent the case for review.\nAleksey Khabarov from Porkhov, Pskov Region, who was initially acquitted, was sentenced at the third trial on October 25, 2023, to 2 years and 6 months in a penal colony. The court of appeal reduced the term by only 2 months.\nThe Supreme Court Does Not Comply With Its Own Judgement It seems paradoxical that acquittals of Jehovah’s Witnesses are consistently overturned by the Supreme Court, whose position is that meeting for worship in itself cannot be considered a crime (in the cases of Jehovah’s Witnesses, this is the only corpus delicti). On October 28, 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court published a ruling stating: \"If a court adopts a decision, which enters into force, to liquidate or ban the activity of a public or religious association or other organization regarding extremist activity, subsequent actions of persons that are not related to the continuation or resumption of the activity of the relevant extremist organization and consist solely in exercising their right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, including through individual or joint practice of religion, meetings for worship or other religious rites and ceremonies, in themselves, if they do not contain signs of extremism, do not constitute a crime\" (emphasis added).\nHowever, in practice, some judges of the Supreme Court do not consider it necessary to follow this position. They simply repeat the prosecution’s narrative that any collective practice of worship by Jehovah’s Witnesses is \"extremist.\"\nIn total, the Supreme Court has already overturned two acquittals of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In addition to the above-mentioned case of Pryanikov and the Dulovs, a similar decision was made on December 15, 2022 in the case of the Bazhenovs and Vera Zolotova.\nJudgments of the European Court of Human Rights On January 31, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights considered seven applications by Jehovah’s Witnesses from Russia relating to events from 2010 to 2014. In all of them, the court sided with the applicants and ordered Russia to pay compensation in the amount of 345,773 euros and another 5,000 euros as legal costs.\nThis is the second judgement of the ECHR in the case of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses in the last 2 years. In the summer of 2022, the ECHR also exonerated believers in a larger lawsuit related to the illegal liquidation of all legal entities of the Witnesses and the seizure of their property. The total amount of compensation under this decision exceeds 63 million euros.\nAlas, so far the decisions of the ECHR have no visible impact on the practice of the Russian law enforcement system. The Russian authorities are in no hurry to pay compensation to exonerated believers, and continue to sentence them to long prison terms.\nExactly on the day of the decision of the ECHR, June 7, 2022, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted laws under an accelerated procedure, according to which ECHR judgments issued after March 15, 2022 are not enforceable in Russia.\n\u0026quot;The Case of the Eighteen\u0026quot; in Surgut: Faith is a Crime, Torture is Heroism In 2023, a high-profile case in Surgut approached its conclusion, which received wide publicity because the believers were tortured. The case against 18 men and one woman from Surgut, including a man whom the investigation mistakenly mistook for one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, has been dragging on since February 2019. Seven defendants went through severe torture during interrogation, and one of them, Timofey Zhukov, was forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital and later obtained compensation for this. The torture in Surgut was widely covered in the Russian media; the believers met with the Human Rights Ombudsman for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region and employees of the offices of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation and conferences were held with the participation of human rights defenders.\nIn November 2023, the prosecutor requested harsh terms for the believers \u0026ndash; up to 9.5 years in a penal colony (for Sergey Loginov). On December 5, 2023, all the defendants in the Surgut case were given suspended sentences ranging from 4 to 7 years. Sergey Loginov and Timofey Zhukov were given the longest sentences of 7 years.\nAt the same time, not a single criminal case has been initiated for the torture of the believers. Moreover, later the head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee, where Jehovah’s Witnesses were tortured, Vladimir Yermolaev and his subordinate Sergey Bogoderov received awards, and the soldiers of the National Guard of Russia who participated in the operation were rewarded.\n\"Have They Succeeded in Intimidating Jehovah’s Witnesses?\" Sergei Ivanenko, Ph.D. in Philosophy, a religious scholar who attended as an expert at 14 judicial trials against Jehovah’s Witnesses in different regions of Russia, writes his impressions in his book \"The People Who Are Steadfast in Persecution\" published in 2023: \"Jehovah’s Witnesses... consider it their religious responsibility to preach Christianity to law enforcement officials, judges, and also to prisoners... Have they succeeded in intimidating Jehovah’s Witnesses? No, they have not. They continue to preach, to help each other, and to support prisoners of conscience. According to the believers, persecution strengthens their faith in Jehovah, and strong faith brings inner peace... Those who know the history of Jehovah's Witnesses understand that they have endured the most severe persecution and have not forsaken their faith. Nor does persecution in today's Russia frighten them.\"\n","category":"analytics","date":"2023-12-27T13:08:20+02:00","duration":"1:56","image":{"jpg":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_8ce5188d4fbb9f2c.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_7d61162a90e88d55.jpg","webp":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_c30bde6a69fa6960.webp","webp2x":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_7cb627d2f70ce16.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2023/12/271308.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["search","elderly","disability","video","rosfinmonitoring","medical-rights","siloviks-violence","torture","international","supreme-court","echr","international-community","expert-conclusions","fabrications","statistics","analytics","review"],"title":"Jehovah’s Witnesses Under the Yoke of Repression — 2023 Overview","type":"video"},{"body":"On August 2, 2022, a translation of the ECHR judgment in the case of the LRO of Taganrog and Others v. Russia was notarized in Russia. The ECHR issued a historic ruling in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses, ruling that their persecution in Russia was illegal.\nThe following conclusions of the European Court of Justice, while made in the ruling against Russia, apply throughout the entire Council of Europe, where there are 2.8 million people who attend worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses. In the ruling, the court assessed the charges that circulate among those who are prejudiced against this religion. Here are a few quotes.\nAre the charges of extremism justified? “The Court reiterates that only religious statements and actions involving or calling for violence, hatred or discrimination may warrant suppression as being “extremist”. … The courts did not identify any word, deed or action by the applicants which would be motivated or tainted by violence, hatred or discrimination against others.” — §271.\nIs it against the law to believe in the truth of one's religion? “Peacefully seeking to convince others of the superiority of one’s own religion and urging them to abandon “false religions” and join the “true one” is a legitimate form of exercise of the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression which enjoys the protection under Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention.” —§156.\nShould one be punished for refusing a blood transfusion? \"the refusal of blood transfusion was an expression of free will of a community member exercising her right to personal autonomy in the sphere of health care protected both under the Convention and in Russian law.\" —§165.\nIs conscientious objection to military service a crime? \" The religious admonishment to refuse military service did not break any Russian laws and the Jehovah’s Witnesses were entitled to seek to persuade others that they should prefer alternative civilian service instead of taking up weapons.\" —§169.\nIs there anything illegal about religious texts? \" Both the applicants’ religious activities and the content of their publications appear to have been peaceful in line with their professed doctrine of non-violence. … Not one of the banned publications was found to contain calls or incitement to violence or any insulting, slanderous or discriminatory statements against members of other faiths.\" —§157.\nHow should the practice of blocking entire websites be viewed? \"The Court has found above that the decision to declare the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religious publications “extremist” disclosed a violation of the Convention. This finding applies to the publications, brochures and magazines which had been referenced in the request for a blocking order. However, even if there had been exceptional circumstances justifying the blocking of unlawful content, the measure blocking access to the entire website would have needed a justification of its own… and by reference to the criteria established by the Court under Article 10 of the Convention. Blocking access to legitimate content can never be an automatic consequence of another, more restricted blocking measure because indiscriminate blocking measure – interfering as it does with lawful content as a collateral effect of a measure aimed solely at illegal content – amounts to arbitrary interference with the rights of website owners.\" —§231.\nAs a result, the ECHR concluded that from the point of view of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the ban on the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in 2017, as well as the publications and website, was unlawful. The Court ruled that the respondent state must take all necessary measures to stop the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses and release those of them who are imprisoned, as well as return the confiscated property from legal entities or pay compensation in the amount of 59,617,458 euros. In addition, the believers' claims for moral damages totaling 3,447,250 euros were satisfied.\n","category":"victory","date":"2022-08-15T14:10:59+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_3efac30db4320492.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_ad78c593ce6921f9.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_93839831565ccfac.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_d87ccde8040c3fdd.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/08/151410.html","regions":["france","moscow","rostov"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","international"],"title":"The Russian Translation of the ECHR Judgment That Fully Vindicated Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia Is Published","type":"news"},{"body":"The inclusion of Jehovah's Witnesses publications in the extremist list was the foundation for the subsequent ban of activities and criminal prosecution of believers. In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling in which it thoroughly analyzed all the logical and legal errors made by Russian courts.\nIs it allowed to consider one's religion to be the only true one? According to the Russian government's explanation to the ECHR, \"a local religious organization in Taganrog was engaged in illegal activities, including the distribution of printed materials proclaiming the superiority of their religion over others\" (paragraph 144 of the ruling). This is the court assessment of the ECHR:\nParagraph 153: \"... Preference for one's own religion, \"perception\" of it as unique and the only true one... is the cornerstone of almost any religious system, as is the evaluation of other faiths as 'false,' 'wrong,' or 'unsaving.'\" (\"... Preference for one's own religion, the perception of it as unique and the only true one... is a cornerstone of almost any religious system, as is the assessment of the other faiths as \"false\", \"wrong\" or \"not conducive to salvation.\")\nParagraph 153: \"In the absence of expressions that seek to incite or justify violence or hatred based on religious intolerance, any religious entity or individual believers have the right to proclaim and defend their doctrine as the true and superior one and to engage in religious disputes and criticism seeking to prove the truth of one's own and the falsity of others' dogmas or beliefs.\nParagraph 156: \"Even accepting that the texts promoted the idea that it was better to be a Jehovah's Witness than a member of another Christian denomination, it is significant that the texts did not insult, hold up to ridicule or slander non-Witnesses.\"\nParagraph 200: \"...No elements of violence, hatred, abuse, insults, ridicule or calls for anyone's exclusion or discrimination have been identified in any of the publications.”\nIs it correct to regard criticism as \"incitement to hatred\"? \"The Regional Court [in Russia] referred to statements by two Orthodox priests and five Orthodox believers who claimed to have been offended by the Witnesses' criticism of Orthodoxy\" (par 18). The ECHR assessed this situation as follows:\nParagraph 154: “Religious people may be genuinely offended by claims of the superiority of another's religion over their own. However, the fact that individuals or groups of people may perceive criticism as an insult does not mean that it constitutes ‘hate speech’\nParagraph 156: \"Peacefully seeking to convince others of the superiority of one's own religion and urging them to abandon 'false religions' and join the 'true one' is a legitimate form of exercise of the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression which enjoys the protection under Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention.\"\n\"Incitement to hatred\" - in whom and to whom? The European Court considered the allegations of incitement to religious hatred to be speculative and unsubstantiated. This is the conclusion reached by the ECHR:\nParagraph 200: \"Although the Jehovah's Witnesses' publications have been widely available in many countries for decades, including in Russia, the Government has not submitted any evidence that they have caused interreligious tensions or led to any harmful consequences or violence, in Russia or elsewhere.” Paragraph 157: “Both the applicants’ religious activities and the content of their publications appear to have been peaceful in line with their professed doctrine of non-violence.”\nParagraph 200: \"There is no indication that the domestic courts perceived the texts in question as capable of leading to public disturbances or unrest.”\nWhat was wrong with the expertise on which the court relied? The Russian courts based their decisions on the conclusions of experts invited by the prosecution. How did the European Court regard this?\nParagraph 203: \"Expert conclusions ... go beyond addressing purely specialist issues, such as clarifying the import or meaning of particular words and expressions, and provide what is in effect a legal assessment of publications. The Court has found that situation unacceptable and stressed that all issues of law should be determined exclusively by judges.\"\nParagraph 204: \"The courts limited their analysis to reproducing a summary of findings by expert witnesses which they endorsed in their entirety without drawing any legal conclusions from them, stating simply that they had no reason to doubt them.\"\nParagraph 204: \"It is apparent from the judgments that it was not the court that made the decisive findings as to the 'extremist' nature of the Jehovah's Witnesses publications but the experts selected by the prosecutors and police.\" Did the believers have an opportunity to defend their publications in court? After examining the applicants' complaints ECHR concluded as follows:\nParagraph 205: \"They also failed to uphold the adversarial nature of the proceedings. Some applicants were unable to effectively put forward arguments in defence of their position, as the courts rejected their evidence, including alternative expert opinions.\"\nParagraph 205: \"Other applicants had not been even informed of the banning proceedings and denied the possibility to challenge the first-instance judgment by way of appeal.\"\nIs it possible to predict that the publication will or will not be recognized as extremist in Russia?\" ... Decisions to classify Jehovah's Witnesses publications as \"extremist\"... were based on an arbitrarily broad definition of 'extremist activity' in Russian law\" (par. 270). This is the problem, according to the ECHR, that this creates in society:\nParagraph 158: \"This is a broad definition of 'extremism'... deprived individuals or organizations of the opportunity to foresee that their behavior, however peaceful and devoid of hatred or hostility, could be classified as 'extremist' and subject to restrictions\". (\"That broad definition of \"extremism\"... prevented individuals or organisations from being able to anticipate that their conduct, however peaceful and devoid of hatred or animosity it was, could be categorised as \"extremist\" and censured with restrictive measures.\")\nParagraph 201: \"This sweeping definition enabled the Russian authorities to restrict the distribution of non-violent religious publications but also prevented publishers and users of the publications to anticipate, on account of its lacking the necessary precision, which publications could be categorized as 'extremist' and banned on that account.”\nThe only grounds for liquidation and prohibition of all Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in Russia, confiscation of their property, criminal prosecution of over 600 believers and sentences of up to eight years in prison were the inclusion of their publications in the list of extremist materials. The fact that the European Court deemed this inclusion unlawful deprives all the persecution of the followers of this religion that has been unfolding in Russia of grounds.\n","category":"victory","date":"2022-06-17T11:14:36+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_b38e7d752dd7df35.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_1a7be55a9af7cb80.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_bb6332b10374f223.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_5413e61e85cb47e0.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/06/171114.html","regions":["rostov","moscow","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","review","analytics","international"],"title":"ECHR Considered Why Jehovah's Witnesses Were Declared Extremists and Explained Why This Was Illegal. Key Quotes","type":"news"},{"body":"On May 16, 2021, the association of former prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp (Lagergemeinschaft Dachau) sent an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin condemning the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.\n“Not a day passes on which there is no report of state repression against Jehovah’s Witnesses,” the letter explains. “The homes of members of the religious denomination are searched and ravaged by the Russian secret service, FSB, and the police. Violent assaults and mistreatment occur. Women and men are condemned to long-term prison sentences. Requests to ease detention conditions or for parole are regularly refused.”\nThe letter concludes: “We urge you to grant every resident of the Russian Federation the constitutional right to free exercise of religion. Please end this injustice!”\nSince the ban on Russian religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and as of June 7, 2021, almost 1500 searches have been carried out in 65 regions of Russia, 492 people have become accused of extremism, the courts have already passed 100 sentences, 15 believers have been sent to a colony, 2 have served their sentences and been released, the rest are still serving their sentences. A total of 57 Jehovah's Witnesses are detained for their faith.\n","category":"rights","date":"2021-06-07T15:04:09+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/06/071504/image_hu_b9baf012a256ede3.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/06/071504/image_hu_177f0719e6d8855a.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/06/071504/image_hu_c2005e176cc738ba.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/06/071504/image_hu_fe9baa5187feb4a8.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/06/071504.html","regions":["moscow","germany"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["nazi-germany","international","eu","head"],"title":"Former prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp called on Putin to stop the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"The International Historical and Educational Society Memorial holds a round table \"70 Years of Operation \"North\"\" about the persecution of believers in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. The MGB USSR conducted Operation North in early April 1951. This was a forced relocation of identified Jehovah's Witnesses with their families to remote areas of the USSR.\nThe conversation will be broadcast online on the International Memorial channel at the link. It will begin on April 6, 2021 at 6:00 p.m.\nPavel Polyan, historian and expert in the study of forced migrations in the USSR, has been invited to participate in the roundtable. He will address the topic of \"Operation North: Deportation for the Faith.” In addition, Aleksandr Daniel, co-chairman of the St. Petersburg Memorial Society, will speak on \"Some specific methods of criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the 1950s and 1960s.” Human rights activist Valery Borschev of the Moscow Helsinki Group will speak on the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. Sergey Davidis, a member of the Board of the Memorial Human Rights Center and head of the program \"Support for Political Prisoners,\" will speak about \"Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017-2021: chronology, statistics, formal justifications.\" Yaroslav Sivulsky from the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses has been invited to participate in the discussion. The moderator of the round table is Aleksandr Guryanov, head of the Polish Research Program of International Memorial.\nThis round table is not the only commemorative event on the anniversary of Operation North. On April 1, a press conference was held in Moscow (a recording is available online). On the same day in Chisinau a scientific conference was held under the auspices of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova with the participation of Balti and Cahul State Universities. In addition, a scientific conference is planned in Kiev.\n","category":"analytics","date":"2021-04-06T16:21:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/04/7/image_hu_ab962f7897e2db79.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/04/7/image_hu_b6c034ada26b0aee.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/04/7/image_hu_f8ca00cc0fd2a013.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/04/7/image_hu_c4c4edc6dac0e80.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/04/7.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["1951deport","ussr","international","review","deportation"],"title":"On April 6, 2021 the International Memorial Society is holding a round table in Moscow entitled \"70 Years of Operation \"North\"\". An online live transmission of the event is being made available","type":"news"},{"body":"How many people were repressed for their faith in 2020? As of December 30, 2020, 427 followers of Jehovah's Witnesses are officially in the status of accused, suspected, indicted, convicted, or acquitted. Of these, 146 learned of criminal prosecution in 2020. (In 2019, the number was 213.) The total number of criminal cases brought was 188 (most often 2 or more defendants in one criminal case).\nWhat is the geographic scope of religious repression as of the end of 2020? Criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses have already been opened in 60 Regions, Territories, republics, Autonomous Regions, and Cities of Federal Significance. In 2020, cases were opened in 8 new regions of Russia. (In 2019, the number was 21.)\nHow many convictions for faith were handed down in 2020, and how many of them went into effect. As of December 30, 2020, 59 men and women were convicted for their faith in the past 2 years. During 2020, 39 people were convicted under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to various penalties by the trial courts. (In 2019, the figure was 18.) Of these, 21 people are still waiting for an appeal decision. For 23 believers during 2020, appeal hearings were held and sentences went into effect. (In 2019, the number was 10.) In some cases, sentences were reduced or increased, but most were unchanged.\nHow many Jehovah's Witnesses have passed through temporary detention facilities, pre-trial detention centers, or penal colonies, and how many are still being held there. A total of 221 believers have been sent behind bars since May 2017. During 2020, 49 believers were placed in pre-trial detention (SIZO), and another 23 spent a few days each in a TDF, but they were given a non-custodial measure of restraint. Thus, during the year, 72 believers ended up in detention. (In 2019, the figure was 84.) As of December 30, 2020, 46 people remain behind bars, including 36 in pre-trial detention facilities and 10 in penal colonies.\nVladimir and Tatyana Alushkin Felix Makhammadiyev, March 2020 The family meets Gennadiy Shpakovsky at the exit from the pre-trial detention center Lyudmila Shut in the courtroom, September 2020 Yuriy Zalipaev in the courtroom Yuriy Savelyev in the courtroom, Novosibirsk, 2020 The security forces are storming the apartment of believers. Moscow, November 2020. Photo source: Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Vardan Zakaryan after the session of the Presnensky District Court, Moscow, November 30, 2020 Dennis Christensen in a prison cell for visits during a meeting with a lawyer. Lgov. September 8, 2020 Natalia and Sergey Britvin, Vadim and Tatyana Levchuk, Berezovsky, September 2020 How many searches have been conducted in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses? Since the ban on registered Jehovah's Witnesses took effect, a total of 1,274 searches have been conducted in their homes. Of these, 477 searches were conducted in 2020. (In 2019, the number was 489.) A search is a significant restriction of a person's constitutional right to liberty and security of person, privacy, personal and family secrets, honor, and good name.\nChronicle of the incursions into the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2020:\n01/19/2020 Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan): 4 searches were conducted. 01/21/2020 Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan): 1 search was conducted. 01/22/2020 Razdolnoye (Primorye Territory): 6 searches carried out. 01/24/2020 Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan): 1 search was conducted. 01/28/2020 Pechora (Komi Republic): 12 searches carried out. 02/10/2020 Darasun resort (Trans-Baikal Territory): 1 search was conducted. 02/10/2020 Chita (Trans-Baikal Territory): 23 searches carried out. 02/10/2020 Pervomaisky (Trans-Baikal Territory): 1 search was conducted. 02/10/2020 Verkhnyaya Hila (Trans-Baikal Territory): 1 search was conducted. 02/10/2020 Baley (Trans-Baikal Territory): 3 searches carried out. 02/10/2020 Amazar (Trans-Baikal Territory): 4 searches carried out. 02/10/2020 Duldurga (Trans-Baikal Territory): 1 search was conducted. 02/10/2020 Yasnogorsk (Trans-Baikal Territory): 6 searches carried out. 02/10/2020 Khilok (Trans-Baikal Territory): 4 searches carried out. 02/10/2020 Krasnokamensk (Trans-Baikal Territory): 4 searches carried out. 02/10/2020 Novopavlovsk (Stavropol Territory): 1 search was conducted. 02/12/2020 Stavropol (Stavropol Territory): 1 search was conducted. 02/13/2020 Yalta (Republic of Crimea): 1 search was conducted. 03/06/2020 Kizlyar (Republic of Dagestan): 1 search was conducted. 03/23/2020 Khabarovsk (Khabarovsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 03/24/2020 Luchegorsk (Primorye Territory): 4 searches were conducted. 03/30/2020 Karpinsk (Sverdlovsk Region): 3 searches carried out. 04/11/2020 Teikovo (Ivanovo Region): 5 searches were conducted. 04/28/2020 Starokorsunskaya (Krasnodar Territory): 1 search was conducted. 04/29/2020 Kholmskaya (Krasnodar Territory): 5 searches carried out. 04/29/2020 Pavlovskaya (Krasnodar Territory): 5 searches carried out. 05/12/2020 Lesozavodsk (Primorye Territory): 4 searches were conducted. 05/19/2020 Lesozavodsk (Primorye Territory): 3 searches were conducted. 05/20/2020 Maisky (Kabardino-Balkaria Republic): 5 searches carried out. 05/21/2020 Lesozavodsk (Primorye Territory): 1 search was conducted. 05/21/2020 Krasnoyarsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 2 searches carried out. 05/22/2020 Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Khabarovsk Territory): 2 searches carried out. 05/26/2020 Kerch (Republic of Crimea): 5 searches were conducted. 05/27/2020 Vyazemsky (Khabarovsk Territory): 5 searches carried out. 05/27/2020 Khabarovsk (Khabarovsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 06/02/2020 Vlasikha (Moscow Region): 5 searches carried out. 06/09/2020 Astrakhan (Astrakhan region): 27 searches carried out. 06/18/2020 Nazarovo (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 12 searches carried out. 06/22/2020 Krasnoyarsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 2 searches were conducted. 06/23/2020 Goluboy Bay (Republic of Crimea): 2 searches carried out. 07/02/2020 Tavrichanka (Primorye Territory): 6 searches were conducted. 07/07/2020 Likino-Dulevo (Moscow Region): 1 search was conducted. 07/07/2020 Vyazemsky (Khabarovsk Territory): 2 searches carried out. 07/09/2020 Vladivostok (Primorye Territory): 7 searches were conducted. 07/11/2020 Kaliningrad (Kaliningrad Region): 7 searches were conducted. 07/12/2020 Prokopyevsk (Kemerovo Region): 4 searches carried out. 07/13/2020 Voronezh (Voronezh Region): 64 searches carried out. 07/13/2020 Ramon (Voronezh Region): 1 search was conducted. 07/13/2020 Liski (Voronezh Region): 2 searches carried out. 07/13/2020 Semiluki (Voronezh Region): 3 searches carried out. 07/13/2020 Stary Oskol (Belgorod Region): 1 search was conducted. 07/13/2020 Borisoglebsk (Voronezh Region): 1 search was conducted. 07/13/2020 Maslovsky (Voronezh Region): 1 search was conducted. 07/13/2020 Pavlovsk (Voronezh Region): 1 search was conducted. 07/13/2020 Novovoronezh (Voronezh Region): 1 search was conducted. 07/14/2020 Seversk (Tomsk Region): 6 searches conducted. 07/15/2020 Zvezdny (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic): 1 search was conducted. 07/23/2020 Surgut (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug): 1 search was conducted. 07/28/2020 Solikamsk (Perm Territory): 3 searches were conducted. 08.08.2020 Rostov-on-Don (Rostov Region): 1 search was conducted. 08.08.2020 Gukovo (Rostov Region): 16 searches carried out. 08.08.2020 Kursk (Kursk region): 2 searches carried out. 08/10/2020 Nevinnomyssk (Stavropol Territory): 2 searches carried out. 08/18/2020 Partizansk (Primorye Territory): 1 search was conducted. 08/19/2020 Yugorsk (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area): 8 searches were conducted. 08/19/2020 Sovetskiy (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area): 1 search was conducted. 08/24/2020 Pechora (Komi Republic): 12 searches carried out. 08/27/2020 Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan): 1 search was conducted. 09/03/2020 Vyazemsky (Khabarovsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 09/04/2020 Yelets (Lipetsk Region): 2 searches conducted. 09/05/2020 Pechora (Komi Republic): 1 search was conducted. 09/15/2020 Krasnoyarsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 09/24/2020 Blagoveshchensk (Amur Region): 1 search was conducted. 01.10.2020 Sevastopol (Republic of Crimea): 9 searches were conducted. 06.10.2020 Solnechnodolsk (Stavropol Territory): 1 search was conducted. 10 /11/2020 Nikolsk (Penza Region): 4 searches were conducted. 10/13/2020 Zeya (Amur Region): 8 searches were conducted. 10/19/2020 Berezovsky (Sverdlovsk Region): 5 searches carried out. 10/22/2020 Sovetskaya Gavan (Khabarovsk Territory): 2 searches carried out. 10/29/2020 Vyazemsky (Khabarovsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 11/ 11/2020 Krasnoyarsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 2 searches were conducted. 11/ 12/2020 Maisky (Kabardino-Balkaria Republic): 1 search was conducted. 11/12/2020 Tyrnyauz (Kabardino-Balkaria Republic): 6 searches conducted. 11/12/2020 Cherkessk (Karachay-Cherkess Republic): 1 search was conducted. 11/16/2020 Gryazi (Lipetsk Region): 9 searches carried out. 11/18/2020 Nizhnekamsk (Republic of Tatarstan): 12 searches were conducted. 11/ 19/2020 Nizhnekamsk (Republic of Tatarstan): 1 search was conducted. 11/24/2020 Moscow (Moscow): 20 searches carried out. 11/27/2020 Cheboksary (Chuvash Republic): 5 searches carried out. 11/27/2020 Novocheboksarsk (Chuvash Republic): 2 searches carried out. 11/27/2020 Krasnoyarsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 11/28/2020 Krasnoyarsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 11/30/2020 Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk Region): 4 searches were conducted. 02.12.2020 Kholmskaya (Krasnodar Territory): 2 searches carried out. 12/09/2020 Oryol (Oryol Region): 8 searches were conducted. 12/11/2020 Krasnoyarsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 1 search was conducted. 12/21/2020 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Kamchatka Territory): 1 search was conducted. 12/21/2020 Lermontovka (Khabarovsk Territory): 4 searches carried out. 12/21/2020 Bikin (Khabarovsk Territory): 5 searches carried out. 12/24/2020 Kirsanov (Tambov Region): 20 searches carried out. 12/24/2020 Lukhovitsy (Moscow Region): 1 search was conducted. 12/25/2020 Chita (Trans-Baikal Territory): 1 search was conducted. Which international organizations came out in defense of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses in 2020?\nOn March 12, 2020, 27 European Union (EU) states issued a statement calling on Russia to stop repressing Jehovah's Witnesses. Six other non-EU countries joined the statement.\nOn May 6, 2020, the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted a decision concerning 18 believers in Russia. The group deemed the cases against them illegal and recommended their immediate release.\nOn July 23, 2020, 30 OSCE member states issued a statement harshly criticizing the Russian repression of Jehovah's Witnesses.\nOn October 1, 2020, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (the body that oversees how countries execute ECtHR judgments) issued a decision noting the repeated failure of the Russian Federation to implement the final judgment in the case of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow v. Russia. The Committee of Ministers pointed out that the 2017 Supreme Court decision concerning Jehovah's Witnesses effectively nullified earlier progress in the case, creating a legal basis for the repetition of violations that the European Court had previously assessed and found unlawful.\nEarlier condemnations of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia included:\nУполномоченный по правам человека в РФ, Совет по правам человека при Президенте РФ, Президент РФ, видные общественные деятели России, внешнеполитическая служба Евросоюза, наблюдатели Парламентской ассамблеи Совета Европы, Рабочая группа по произвольным задержаниям ООН, Управление Верховного комиссара ООН по правам человека. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that decisions of Russian courts to liquidate and ban Jehovah's Witnesses organizations \"do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses and do not contain restrictions or prohibitions on the individual practice of the above-mentioned doctrine.\"\n","category":"analytics","date":"2020-12-30T17:18:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2020/12/11/image_hu_6e824854a7e195a4.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2020/12/11/image_hu_a0edc9c3ff7dcd03.jpg","webp":"/news/2020/12/11/image_hu_d07e38f46596a544.webp","webp2x":"/news/2020/12/11/image_hu_a8c58fff6371606a.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/12/11.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["analytics","review","statistics","international","human-rights-defenders","human-right-organizations","commissioner-rf","presidential-council","pace","eu"],"title":"Jehovah's Witnesses Under the Yoke of Repression: Results of 2020","type":"news"},{"body":"On June 23, 2020, at 19:50 Lgov district court, considering Dennis Christensen's petition for mitigation of his sentence, replaced his unexpired part of the prison term with a fine of 400,000 rubles. A Jehovah's Witness convicted of faith will be released after the court ruling enters into force.\nThe hearing was attended by Danish diplomats. No one else, including Dennis' wife Irina, was allowed into the building. Christensen himself attended the hearing via video.\nDennis Christensen was arrested on 25 May 2017 and sentenced to six years in prison in February 2019. The court considered it extremist that the believer continued to gather with his fellow believers for religious meetings and welcomed them before the religious service. However, there were no victims of Christensen's \"crimes\". To date, the believer has actually been behind bars for about 3 years and 1 month. However, taking into account the fact that according to the law, one day in the pre-trial detention facility equals 1.5 days in the general regime colony, Christensen has served more than 4 years of the term appointed by the court.\n\"From the moment of his arrest Christensen has behaved and behaved respectfully and correctly towards the employees of the investigation and court, the pre-trial detention facility and the employees of correctional colony № 3. He independently organized free English language training for prisoners, maintains friendly relations with other convicts,\" said Christensen's lawyer, explaining to Galina Petlitsa the grounds for the mitigation of punishment to the believer.\nCorrectional colony No. 3 in Lgov The lawyer described the mistakes made by the courts, which put Christensen in prison. As stated in an appeal ruling of the Supreme Court on October 18, 2016, which confirmed the liquidation of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Oryol,\" believers in Russia \"are not deprived of the opportunity to perform their own religious worship. Contrary to this, the courts interpreted Christensen's private religion as the continuation of a banned legal entity.\n\"Judge Galina Petlitsa made a fair decision. This is a brave and honest act, which is not often decided recently by the judges hearing the cases of Jehovah's Witnesses,\" said the representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, Yaroslav Sivulski.\nReplacing the punishment of a believer means for Christensen the opportunity to go free without any additional restrictions, except for the obligation to pay the fine, said Christensen's advocate.\nCurrently, there are 10 convicts in Russian colonies for the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, while another 24 people are imprisoned. A total of 353 people who hold the views of Jehovah's Witnesses are accused of extremism for their Christian faith. The religious persecution continues despite assurances from the Russian government and Vladimir Putin that there is no reason to persecute Jehovah's Witnesses.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2020-06-23T20:17:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2020/06/16/image_hu_209aefe4dc92abe3.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2020/06/16/image_hu_fce88e9de3035433.jpg","webp":"/news/2020/06/16/image_hu_cdc83b30c2547b0e.webp","webp2x":"/news/2020/06/16/image_hu_6c0c0c5048cff321.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/06/16.html","regions":["oryol","kursk"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["mitigation","fine","international","life-in-prison"],"title":"The Court Ordered to Free Dennis Christensen, one of Jehovah's Witness From Denmark. For His Faith, He Stayed in Prison for 1128 Days","type":"news"},{"body":"On March 16, 2020, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia sent Belarus a request for the extradition of Russian citizen Nikolai Makhalichev, 36, who is accused of erroneous religious views in his homeland. The believer has been in the Vitebsk pre-trial detention center for more than a month and can go to a Russian prison for up to 15 years. International and Belarusian human rights activists are convinced that the extradition to Russia and even confinement in a pre-trial detention center simply because of religious beliefs violate Belarusian law. “Nikolai Makhalichev has not committed any internationally recognizable criminal offense or anything which constitutes a crime under Belarusian law and is facing prosecution solely for exercising his right to freedom of religion,” Amnesty International said in its urgent action statement. “He should be immediately and unconditionally released.”\nInternational and Belarusian human rights activists are convinced that extradition to Russia and even detention in a pre-trial detention center simply because of religious beliefs violate Belarusian legislation. \"Nikolay Makhalichev has not committed any internationally recognized criminal offence or other offence that is classified as a crime under Belarusian law,\" Amnesty International said in an urgent statement. \"He is being persecuted only because of his exercise of his right to freedom of religion and must be immediately and unconditionally released from detention.\"\n\"The extradition of Nikolai Makhalichev will violate both international agreements and the domestic legislation of the Republic of Belarus,\" the Belarusian human rights organization Human Constanta said in a statement. The authors of the publication explain that, according to Article 17 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus of January 4, 2010 No. 105-Z \"On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Republic of Belarus\", foreigners cannot be expelled from the Republic of Belarus to a foreign state where their life or freedom is threatened due to their race, religion, citizenship, nationality, belonging to a particular social group or political opinion.\nThe case against Nikolay Makhalichev was initiated in Urai (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug) on January 31, 2019. On February 21, 2020, he was detained by Belarusian law enforcement officers near the border with Russia. On February 24, by the decision of the Deputy Prosecutor of the Gorodok District of the Vitebsk Region, A.N. Zaikin, the believer was sent to SIZO-2 of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. There he is waiting for the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Belarus on the issue of his extradition to Russia.\nIn addition to Makhalichev, another 22 people are being prosecuted in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug for their faith in Jehovah. In this region, there were cases of the most cruel treatment of believers. Some of them were tortured and forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital.\n","category":"rights","date":"2020-04-03T15:54:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2020/04/5/image_hu_48492b6cb928508c.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2020/04/5/image_hu_d8dde54e680510f1.jpg","webp":"/news/2020/04/5/image_hu_b343f4faaab58dbe.webp","webp2x":"/news/2020/04/5/image_hu_4b522c2f1a694656.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/04/5.html","regions":["khanty-mansi","belarus"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["sizo","human-rights-defenders","international"],"title":"In Belarus, Human Rights Groups Protest Plan to Extradite Nikolay Makhalichev to Russia, Where He Faces Persecution for Faith","type":"news"},{"body":"A joint statement of the 27 European states-members of the European Union (EU) was circulated on March 12, 2020, in Vienna at a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The statement was joined by another six non-EU countries.\nAmong other things, the statement said: \"... Jehovah's Witnesses must be able to peacefully enjoy their human rights, including the right to freedom of religion or belief, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, and freedom of expression, without discrimination. We call on the authorities to drop all charges against individuals who have been unjustifiably prosecuted or prosecuted for exercising human rights.\"\nThe European Union cites shocking statistics: \"Since the liquidation of all local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 869 house searches have reportedly been conducted, 26 people are in pre-trial detention, 23 are under house arrest, 316 have been charged and 29 have already been convicted.\"\nThe statement lists the most egregious recent cases of ill-treatment of believers by Russian officials: \"According to reports from the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, which were also reflected in Forum 18 reports and media articles, on 6 February 2020, in Orenburg, prison No. 1 officers beat five citizens (Alexei Budenchuk, Gennady German, Roman Gridasov, Felix Makhammadiev and Alexei Miretsky). All of them suffered serious injuries, and one of them required hospitalization. In addition, on February 10, 2020, it was reported that Vadim Kutsenko was tortured before he was taken into custody. Law enforcement officers repeatedly beat and choked him, as well as beat him with electric shocks, demanding information about other Jehovah's Witnesses.\"\nThe European Union pledged to continue to \"closely monitor developments around Jehovah's Witnesses in the OSCE region.\"\n","category":"rights","date":"2020-03-17T18:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2020/03/6/image_hu_17c1bf7f45be9c2a.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2020/03/6/image.jpg","webp":"/news/2020/03/6/image_hu_86e1e63efe5828ce.webp","webp2x":"/news/2020/03/6/image_hu_35999351caac64a5.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/03/6.html","regions":["austria","eu","saratov","zabaykalsky"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["eu","international","osce","siloviks-violence","torture"],"title":"European Union Calls on Russian Authorities to Stop Ill-Treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"In a joint statement , 27 European states that are members of the European Union (EU), as well as 6 other non-EU countries, at a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), call for an investigation into the report that Vadim Kutsenko, before he was detained, was tortured. Law enforcement officers repeatedly beat and choked him, as well as beat him with electric shocks, demanding information about other Jehovah's Witnesses.\n","caseTitle":"Case of Ermolaev and Others in Chita","date":"2020-03-12T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/chita/index.html#20200312","regions":["zabaykalsky"],"tags":["international","osce","torture"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"At a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, 27 European Union countries, as well as 6 other non-EU states, in a joint statement called for an investigation into allegations of torture of Vadim Kutsenko.\n","caseTitle":"Case of Kutsenko in Chita","date":"2020-03-12T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/chita2/index.html#20200312","regions":["zabaykalsky"],"tags":["international","osce","torture"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On February 21, 2020, in the Republic of Belarus, police officers detained Russian citizen Nikolay Makhalichev, 36. Checking his documents, they declared he was wanted by the Russian authorities since he was professing a banned religion. Three days later the prosecutor sent him to pre-trial detention facility SIZO-2 in Vitebsk, Belarus.\nA criminal case against Nikolay Makhalichev was opened in Russia on January 31, 2019 by the investigating authorities of the city of Uraya (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug).\nWhile traveling around Belarus, Nikolai Makhalichev was stopped by the police to check his documents. He was told that Russia had put him on the wanted list. The believer ended up in a temporary detention center in the town of Gorodok (Vitebsk region).\nOn February 24, 2020, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Gorodok District, Junior Counselor of Justice A.N. Zaikin decided to detain Nikolai Makhalichev with serving in SIZO-2 of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. In his ruling, the Belarusian prosecutor, referring to the Russian court, claims that Makhalichev acted \"deliberately, motivated by religious intolerance, from extremist motives, expressed in the propaganda of the advantage of followers of the religious teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses over other persons ...\", and was also engaged in \"confession and dissemination of ideology and faith.\" It is obvious that the prosecutor copied the text of the charge from the Russian criminal case into his decision.\nGiven that the Belarusian authorities may extradite him to Russia, Nikolai Makhalichev filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee. Makhalichev considers the decision of the Belarusian prosecutor on detention illegal and will appeal it in the Belarusian court.\n","category":"siloviki","date":"2020-02-25T10:12:05+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/common/depositphotos_21862193_hu_c1ba1fe0fba8de81.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/common/depositphotos_21862193.jpg","webp":"/news/common/depositphotos_21862193_hu_6352a6d9befce345.webp","webp2x":"/news/common/depositphotos_21862193_hu_7dda90e3b5ffe468.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/02/83.html","regions":["khanty-mansi","belarus"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["ivs","sizo","international","complaints","unhrc"],"title":"For the First Time, Belarus Authorities Arrest One of Jehovah’s Witnesses Persecuted for His Faith in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"On November 24, 2019, the Sweden Ministry of Culture concluded that Jehovah’s Witnesses “contributed to maintaining and strengthening the fundamental values upon which society is based.” It allows them to receive state funding for religious communities. The same happened in Norway a month later.\nIn 2007, the Swedish authorities decided to arbitrarily remove Jehovah's Witnesses from the list of such organizations because they do not vote in elections. However, the Supreme Administrative Court declared this decision inconsistent with the law on three occasions. Finally, on October 24, 2019, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that Jehovah's Witnesses meet all the requirements for religious organizations that receive state grants for public benefit activities under the Swedish Law on the Support of Religious Communities.\nA similar thing happened in Norway, where the state regularly provided grants to all religious organizations, but denied it to Jehovah's Witnesses because of their position of political neutrality. However, on November 18, 2019, after further study of the situation and decisions on a similar issue by public authorities in Sweden, Italy and Germany, Oslo County Governor Valgerd Svarstad Hoagland issued a statement: \"Voting in elections is a fundamental right of Norwegian citizens, but not an obligation. Refraining from this right seems to be part of the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses.\" Believers will be entitled to receive state grants in accordance with the Norwegian law \"On Religious Communities\".\nIn Europe, Russia, and elsewhere in the world, Jehovah's Witnesses strive to be guided by the \"golden rule\" of Jesus Christ: \"In all things, as you want people to do to you, do you also to them\" (Matthew 7:12).\n","category":"opinions","date":"2020-02-11T10:47:05+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2020/02/33/image_hu_6ca08cfc1ef4f47c.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2020/02/33/image_hu_88a2b2f308c50b8a.jpg","webp":"/news/2020/02/33/image_hu_88961c33a71ffc4b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2020/02/33/image_hu_b8e8458664080dbc.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/02/33.html","regions":["sweden","norway"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["international-community","international"],"title":"Sweden and Norway Recognize Jehovah’s Witnesses as a Religion That Contributes to Society","type":"news"},{"body":"On October 1, 2019, the second decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia was received. This time, the arrest of Vladimir Alushkin from Penza was declared illegal. The Working Group is concerned about the \"systemic and institutionalized persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses\" (para. 65).\nWhat was the first decision of the Working Group on Complaints of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses? On May 29, 2019, a document was received following the consideration of the complaint of Dmitry Mikhailov from Shuya (Ivanovo region). His arrest was found to be a manifestation of religious discrimination.\nWhat conclusions did the Working Group reach on the complaint of Vladimir Alushkin (excerpts):\nAbs. 51-52: \"The decision to initiate a criminal case alleged that Alushkin was a religious minister of Jehovah's Witnesses and \"exercised general direction\" of their activities in the city of Penza, which was illegal after the decision of the Supreme Court of April 20, 2017. In particular, it was assumed that they had committed a crime in \"conducting conversations in public places and living quarters with residents of Penza ... and the involvement of new participants from among their relatives, acquaintances and residents of Penza\", as well as holding worship services to \"study its ideology\". The Working Group cannot accept that any of these activities could be described as organizing or participating in the activities of an extremist organization. The Working Group is unable to find any other reason that could justify the restriction of his rights under article 18 of the Covenant. All the activities in which Alushkin took part are an absolutely peaceful religious discussion.\"\nAbs. 53: \"The search of Alushkin's home and the seizure of his Bibles and religious texts, which he used in worship, also constitute an interference with his rights under article 18 of the Covenant.\"\nAbs. 63: \"The Working Group concludes that Alushkin's detention had no legal basis, as the Pervomaiskiy District Court and the Penza Regional Court did not comply with the basic condition for ordering this measure.\"\nAbs. 65: \"The Working Group particularly wishes to draw attention to the latest joint complaint in which special procedures mandate holders expressed concern about 'the issue of systemic and institutionalized persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses.'\"\nAbs. 67: \"Alushkin's actions have always been completely peaceful, and there is no evidence that he or other Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia ever used violence or encouraged others to violence. The Working Group notes that Alushkin is only one of a growing number of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia detained and imprisoned who have been charged with criminal activity on the grounds that they were simply exercising the right to freedom of religion, a right protected by article 18 of the Covenant. The Working Group therefore concludes that Alushkin's detention and detention was a manifestation of religious discrimination.\"\nAbs. 68: \"All these cases relate to the fact that the peaceful religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses were characterized as 'extremist', which led to the detention and imprisonment of those who belong to this religion. Therefore, while this Opinion relates to Alushkin's particular circumstances, the Working Group wishes to emphasize that its conclusions in this Opinion apply to all other persons in circumstances similar to those of Alushkin.\"\nAbs. 71-72: \"An appropriate measure of protection would be the unconditional release of Vladimir Alushkin and the granting of his enforceable right to receive compensation and other forms of reparation in accordance with international law. The Working Group urges the Government to ensure a full and independent investigation into the circumstances of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Vladimir Alushkin and to take appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of his rights.\"\nWhat is the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention? This is a structure under the UN designed to investigate cases of detention that do not comply with international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international documents. The Working Group has the right to receive information from the authorities and non-governmental organizations and to meet with detainees and their families in order to establish the facts. The Working Group submits its conclusions and recommendations to governments, as well as to the UN Human Rights Council. Although the decisions of the Working Group are not binding on States, they can help to soften the position of the authorities in the face of wide international publicity.\nJehovah's Witnesses filed complaints with three different international bodies: the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee, and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-10-14T17:26:07+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/10/1241/190114_alushkin_hu_a772f6d61cb82211.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/10/1241/190114_alushkin.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/10/1241/190114_alushkin_hu_26d2129c5b3c3d0b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/10/1241/190114_alushkin_hu_949adb13912eb186.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/10/1241.html","regions":["penza","switzerland"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["international","review","complaints","un-working-group"],"title":"\"Systemic and Institutionalized Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses.\" The UN Working Group issued a second decision on Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"No. According to the statement of the Government of the Russian Federation, \"the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 20.04.2017 and the appellate ruling of the Appellate Board of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 17.07.2017 do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teaching individually.\" Commenting on the unfair verdicts against Jehovah's Witnesses, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tatiana Moskalkova, said on June 10, 2019: \"These events make us think about the existence of a conflict between the constitutional right to profess one's religion individually or jointly with others and the signs of extremist activity specified in Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.\" On October 28, 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that the divine services of Jehovah's Witnesses, their joint rituals and ceremonies do not in themselves constitute a crime under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, despite the liquidation of their legal entities.\nWhat did the Supreme Court of Russia ban in 2017? The court banned the activities of 396 registered and operating Jehovah's Witnesses organizations. This decision has been challenged in the European Court of Human Rights. The statement of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights of 20.06.18 says: \"This decision of the [Supreme] Court contains an exhaustive list of legal entities subject to liquidation. At the same time, the court's decision does not contain conclusions about the ban on the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses as such.\" Is it allowed in Russia to practice religion without forming a legal entity? Yes. Jehovah's Witnesses have lived in Russia for more than a hundred years, and for most of that time they practiced their faith without the organizations that emerged in the late 1990s under the Freedom of Conscience Law and lasted less than 20 years. The presence or absence of such organizations does not mean the prohibition of entire religions, and even more so does not give grounds for criminal prosecution of citizens for their beliefs. Is it possible to ban people, ideas, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings? This is both impossible and unacceptable. According to Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, everyone has the right \"to freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and to act in accordance with them.\" This right extends to believers of all views and beliefs, including Jehovah's Witnesses. No court in Russia has ever recognized the religion or beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses as criminal. Such a decision would be discriminatory and unconstitutional. How does the international community regard connivance with the actions of Russian officials who persecute Jehovah's Witnesses? The campaign of persecution of believers was unanimously condemned by the UN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the European Union, individual countries of the world (Germany, USA), and a large number of international organizations. ","category":"faq","date":"2019-09-10T11:28:42+03:00","duration":null,"image":false,"permalink":"/en/news/about/faq/5.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["supreme-court","commissioner-rf","analytics","review","international-community","international","mro","liquidation"],"title":"Are Jehovah's Witnesses Actually Banned in Russia?","type":"news"},{"body":"On May 24, 2019, Markus Grübel, Federal Commissioner for Religious Freedom Worldwide, commented that the Court of Appeal upheld the sentence of Jehovah's Witness Dennis Christensen.\n\"I regret the court's decision to dismiss the Christensen appeal,\" said Markus Grübel, \"The situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia is of concern to me. Freedom of religion and worldview is an important human right. Every state must respect it. Religious freedom is indivisible and valid for all religious communities.\"\nA huge number of Russian and international figures and organizations unanimously condemn the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. These include 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, the European Union External Action Service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 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.\" Nevertheless, Russian security forces in 40 regions continue to conduct night raids on the homes of believers and throw them into prisons.\n","category":"opinions","date":"2019-06-12T16:40:29+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/06/931/img_49664758_hu_9479545d1cf453d.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/06/931/img_49664758.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/06/931/img_49664758_hu_624000f3ce7d623c.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/06/931/img_49664758_hu_1d8c9ca91a4177fb.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/06/931.html","regions":["oryol","germany"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["international","appeal","sizo"],"title":"The Federal Commissioner for Religious Freedom around the World is concerned about the situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"On February 8, 2019, the board of the International Historical, Educational, Charitable and Human Rights Society Memorial issued a statement demanding the immediate release of Dennis Christensen and the rest of the arrested Jehovah's Witnesses.\nRecalling the decision of the Supreme Court to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as an extremist organization, human rights activists stressed: \"This shameful and anti-legal decision has put Russia among the countries with the most odious regimes. Jehovah's Witnesses were brutally persecuted in Hitler's Germany. In all democratic countries, Jehovah's Witnesses operate freely. [...] The six years that Christensen received for exercising his constitutional right to freedom of religion are quite comparable to the terms that Jehovah's Witnesses received under the Soviet regime.\nHuman rights activists again drew attention to the incompatibility of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses with common sense: \"It is absurd when Jehovah's Witnesses convicted under the Soviet regime (Memorial knows many hundreds of such ruined destinies) are recognized as victims of political repression in accordance with the Federal Law on Rehabilitation (1991) - and at the same time sent to prison current followers of Jehovah's Witnesses.\"\nSummarizing the above, International Memorial stated: \"This verdict once again confirms the flawedness of Russia's 'anti-extremist' legislation, which makes it possible to enroll almost everyone as extremists. We demand the lifting of the unconstitutional ban on Jehovah's Witnesses.\"\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-02-15T20:15:26+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/02/620/kristensen_web5841_3_0_hu_386a4ff49f328df7.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/02/620/kristensen_web5841_3_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/02/620/kristensen_web5841_3_0_hu_4825278593b675b5.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/02/620/kristensen_web5841_3_0_hu_51248a6f399e4612.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/02/620.html","regions":["oryol"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["international-community","international","liberty-deprivation"],"title":"International Memorial defends Dennis Christensen ","type":"news"},{"body":"On February 7, 2019, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement calling on Russia to drop all charges against Jehovah's Witnesses.\n\"Christensen's harsh sentence sets a dangerous precedent, criminalizing the right to freedom of religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia ... We urge the Government of Russia to revise the Law on Countering Extremist Activity in order to clarify the vague and open-ended definition of extremist activity and to ensure that the definition requires an element of violence and hostility. We also call on the authorities to drop charges against and release all those detained for exercising their rights to freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and the right to peaceful assembly and association.\"\nPreviously, the problem was pointed out by various UN agencies, including the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which called on Russia to abolish the List of Extremist Materials.\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-02-13T21:00:22+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/02/613/image1170x530cropped_hu_2cdaf187f8dd0875.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/02/613/image1170x530cropped.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/02/613/image1170x530cropped_hu_183c361fbe336aad.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/02/613/image1170x530cropped_hu_136448f2e1471a1.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/02/613.html","regions":["usa"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["analytics","expert-conclusions","expert-comments","international"],"title":"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the sentencing of Dennis Christensen","type":"news"},{"body":"On January 24, 2019, a \"Joint Statement on Religious Freedom in Russia\" was published in defense of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses, prepared by 36 organizations from 18 countries. Human rights activists call on the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release all imprisoned Jehovah's Witnesses and drop the charge of extremism against them.\nAs noted in the statement, in addition to criminal prosecution, believers are subjected to armed searches, disruption of worship services, dismissals, and denial of the right to alternative service. In addition, the state seizes the worship buildings of Jehovah's Witnesses. Separately, the statement refers to the detained foreigners - Dennis Christensen and Andrzej Oniszczuk.\nThe joint statement was prepared under the auspices of the Civic Solidarity Platform and signed by non-governmental organizations in Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Georgia, Germany, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States. Among the Russian organizations that signed the statement are the SOVA Information and Analytical Center and the Memorial Society.\nEarlier, prominent public figures of Russia, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, as well as the President of Russia spoke about the massive violation of the rights of believers in a joint appeal.\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-01-25T17:59:41+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/01/579/kirov-017052_hu_2a68c10b69a16aa0.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/01/579/kirov-017052.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/01/579/kirov-017052_hu_a4a519f66099ecc4.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/01/579/kirov-017052_hu_f03714e1669e58d7.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/01/579.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["human-right-organizations","international"],"title":"Joint Statement of 36 Public Organizations in Defense of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"On December 13, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) informed Jehovah's Witnesses that Russia had commented on the complaint \"LRO Glazova and Others v. Russia.\" The substantive remarks state: \"The Government emphasise that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 20 April 2017 and the appellate ruling of the Appellate Board of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 17 July 2017 do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses and do not contain a restriction or prohibition on the individual practice of the above-mentioned doctrine.\"\n\"In view of the foregoing,\" continues Mikhail Galperin, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation, who signed the comments, \" there is no violation of the provisions of the Convention in the present case in connection with the liquidation of the Administrative Center and the prohibition of its activities.\"\n\"The explanations presented to the European Court look mocking, especially for tens of thousands of believers who live in constant fear of a sudden search or arrest,\" believes Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, \"As a result of the decision taken by the Supreme Court, 62 people, including 7 women, were imprisoned for their faith. Right now, 26 people are languishing in various Russian pre-trial detention centers. By claiming that there are no violations, the authorities only exacerbate the already desperate human rights situation in Russia.\"\nComplaint No. 3215/18 (LRO Glazova and Others v. Russian Federation) was filed on behalf of 395 local religious organizations (LROs) that were liquidated by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in April 2017 along with the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The ECHR declared the complaint admissible and indicated that it would consider it as a matter of priority.\nSeparately, complaint No. 10188/17 was filed with the ECHR (\"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation\"). Russia sent comments on the merits of this complaint to the ECHR in March 2018. In December 2018, Russia submitted observations to the compensation claims for both complaints. Now the complaints have been referred to the court. A ruling is awaited.\n","category":"org","date":"2018-12-19T15:21:11+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_affee45bf96b0592.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_e075a8f6fbebffc0.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_11acd09eadbdfafb.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_4bb9473a29123698.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/12/546.html","regions":["moscow","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","international","supreme-court","complaints","mro","administrative-center","liquidation"],"title":"Russia submitted comments to the European Court on the complaint \"LRO Glazova and Others v. Russia\"","type":"news"},{"body":"On September 26, 2018, Christina Arriaga, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), announced the inclusion of Dennis Christensen, who has been in a Russian prison for almost a year and a half for his faith, on the organization's list of \"Religious Prisoners of Conscience.\" The list is intended to focus the Commission's work on the release of specific prisoners and to draw attention to their plight and the general state of religious freedom in their countries.\nThe Commission's official press release states: \"Dennis Christensen was arrested in Oryol on 25 May 2017 following an attack on a prayer service in which he was participating. As of September 13, 2018, Christensen has appeared 38 times before the Oryol District Court. He faces up to 10 years in prison. [...] In April 2017, Russia's Supreme Court declared Jehovah's Witnesses an extremist organization and banned its activities.\"\n\"However, these religious groups only seek to practice their views peacefully and without fear,\" the press release also says.- At the time of his arrest, Dennis was reading the Bible with his fellow believers. The international community must uphold internationally recognized human rights and press for the release of... Dennis and many other citizens imprisoned in Russia for their religious beliefs and activities.\"\nIn 2018, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom listed Russia as a \"Country of Particular Concern.\" According to the Commission's regulations, these are countries whose governments commit systematic, persistent and egregious violations of religious freedom.\n","category":"rights","date":"2018-09-27T18:06:47+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/09/481/kristensen_web5841_hu_89399db99162b020.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/09/481/kristensen_web5841.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/09/481/kristensen_web5841_hu_4c340c6a3c58a4b1.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/09/481/kristensen_web5841_hu_239236ac8c8c739d.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/09/481.html","regions":["oryol","usa"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["human-rights-defenders","analytics","expert-comments","expert-conclusions","international"],"title":"USCIRF Recognizes One of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as a Prisoner of Conscience","type":"news"},{"body":"On May 10, 2018, the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) issued a statement on the situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The European Union is deeply concerned about the increasing persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. \"The Russian government claimed that although it had liquidated the legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses, individual believers were free to practice their faith,\" the statement said. Over the past year, authorities have opened nine criminal investigations and five Jehovah's Witnesses are currently in detention.\"\nEU Statement on the Situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia Unofficial translation (source in PDF) EUROPEAN UNION\nPC. DEL/588/18 10 May 2018\nOSCE Permanent Council No. 1185\nVienna, 10 May 2018\nThe European Union is deeply concerned by recent reports of increased state harassment of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, including police raids on private homes, arbitrary detentions and intimidation.\nWe have repeatedly stated that Jehovah's Witnesses, like all other people, should be able to peacefully practice their religion and enjoy freedom of assembly without discrimination, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and international obligations.\nOn April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation banned the activities of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses and all 395 local legal entities of the Witnesses on the basis of legislation on \"extremism.\" The Russian government claimed that although it had liquidated the legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses, individual believers were free to practice their faith. However, the government's words are at odds with its actions. Over the past year, authorities have opened nine criminal investigations, and five Jehovah's Witnesses are currently in detention. All of them could face possible jail time of up to ten years just for getting together to hold a peaceful worship service. In addition to criminal investigations, the Russian state has confiscated some 90 to 100 properties belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses by court order, and another 100 properties are currently under trial. Russian authorities also threaten Jehovah's Witnesses with deprivation of parental rights.\nThe EU reiterates its call on Russia and all other OSCE participating States to abide by their international obligations on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. OSCE participating States have repeatedly stressed the importance of freedom of religion or belief as a fundamental principle of universal security.\nThe EU will continue to closely monitor developments concerning Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the OSCE area and is concerned by reports that several participating States are restricting the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to profess their faith.\nFreedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief is a fundamental right of every human being and excludes any discrimination. This right is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as joint OSCE commitments. Freedom of religion or belief includes the freedom to manifest one's religion or belief, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, in teaching, worship and worship. The EU continues to promote freedom of religion or belief, which must be respected and promoted everywhere on the basis of the principles of equality, non-discrimination and universality.\n","category":"rights","date":"2018-05-21T23:38:50+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/05/319/973514798_hu_17c1bf7f45be9c2a.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/05/319/973514798.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/05/319/973514798_hu_86e1e63efe5828ce.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/05/319/973514798_hu_35999351caac64a5.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/05/319.html","regions":["austria"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["eu","international","osce"],"title":"European Union Statement on the Situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"Ufa residents who have been searched file a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Vilitkevich in Ufa","date":"2018-05-14T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/ufa/index.html#20180514","regions":["bashkortostan"],"tags":["international"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"The only basis for all accusations of \"extremism\" against Jehovah's Witnesses — the Federal List of Extremist Materials — can be revoked. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called on Russia to do so in its Recommendation of August 25, 2017.\nThe UN Committee is concerned about the unclear definition of extremist activity and the lack of clear criteria by which materials can be classified as extremist, which is used against vulnerable segments of the population.\nThe international community unanimously condemned the accusations of extremism and the ban imposed by a Russian court on Jehovah's Witnesses organizations. This is evident from the following official statements.\nJoint statement by the 28 member states of the European Union, as well as 11 other states, including Australia, Canada and NorwayJuly 21, 2017 (source) \"On July 17, the Russian Supreme Court upheld a decision to liquidate all legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, cease their activities and confiscate property on charges of \"extremist activity.\" The decision confirms the ban on the peaceful worship of Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the country. This ban has already led to cases of criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as police raids on their prayer halls. It has contributed to an atmosphere of hatred and bullying, which has led to arson attacks and other forms of harassment. Jehovah's Witnesses, like all followers of religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as by Russia's international obligations and international human rights standards.\"\nFederal Republic of Germany. German Foreign OfficeJuly 19, 2017 (source) \"We are concerned by the approval of the court decision to ban the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Thus, despite our attempts at persuasion at all levels, the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of religion and thought has become punishable.\"\nUnited States of America. U.S. Department of StateJuly 19, 2017 (source) \"The Russian Supreme Court's decision against Jehovah's Witnesses this week is the latest in a disturbing trend of persecution of religious minorities. We call on the Russian authorities to lift the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, lift the closure of the Jehovah's Witnesses Administrative Center, and release all members of religious minorities who continue to be unjustly detained for so-called 'extremist' activities.\"\nUnited Kingdom. Foreign and Commonwealth OfficeJuly 18, 2017 (source) \"We are deeply concerned that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejected the appeal of Jehovah's Witnesses against the decision that labeled them \"extremists\". This ruling criminalizes the religious activities of more than 175,000 Russian citizens and contravenes the right to religious freedom that is protected by the Russian Constitution.\"\nEuropean Union. European External Action ServiceJuly 18, 2017 (source) \"Jehovah's Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as by Russia's international commitments and international human rights standards.\"\nUnited States of America. U.S. Commission on International Religious FreedomJuly 17, 2017 (source) \"Unfortunately, the Supreme Court's decision demonstrates the government's continued attempts to equate those who peacefully exercise the right to religious freedom with extremists. Jehovah's Witnesses are not an extremist group and should be able to practice their religion openly, freely and without pressure from the authorities.\"\nFederal Republic of Germany. German Chancellor Angela MerkelMay 2, 2017 (source) \"I... asked Mr. President to exert his influence to ensure the preservation of the rights of minorities. This also applies to Jehovah's Witnesses.\"\nOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human RightsApril 25, 2017 (source) \"I am concerned about the unjustified criminalization of the peaceful activities of members of the Jehovah's Witnesses communities in Russia, the liquidation of this community in the country. This Supreme Court decision poses a threat to the values and principles on which democratic, free, open, pluralistic and tolerant societies are founded.\"\nOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for Combating Racism, Xenophobia and DiscriminationApril 25, 2017 (source) \"This ban, the persecution of peaceful people for mere worship, clearly violates the fundamental right to freedom of religion, and with it international human rights standards guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, so it needs to be reviewed as soon as possible.\"\nParliamentary Assembly of the Council of EuropeApril 21, 2017 (source) \"The recent decision of the Supreme Court to declare the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation an extremist organization, to close it and 395 local religious organizations of the Witnesses, raises serious concerns about religious freedom in Russia, and also serves as another example of how anti-extremist legislation is used to suppress freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.\"\nUnited States of America. Commission on Security and Cooperation in EuropeApril 21, 2017 (source) \"Russia's failure to respect religious freedom is yet another inexcusable violation of Moscow's OSCE commitments. People who practice their faith peacefully should never be harassed, fined, or imprisoned. The court order to confiscate the property of Jehovah's Witnesses adds humiliation to the persecution. It is hoped that this case will be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.\"\nEuropean Union. European External Action ServiceApril 21, 2017 (source) \"Yesterday's decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to ban the activities of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia on grounds of \"extremism\" paves the way for criminal prosecution of members of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses for the mere practice of their religion. Jehovah's Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as by Russia's international commitments and international human rights standards.\"\nUnited Kingdom. Foreign and Commonwealth OfficeApril 21, 2017 (source) \"The decision of the Supreme Court of Russia to recognize the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist is alarming. This ruling effectively criminalizes the peaceful worship of 175,000 Russian citizens and contravenes the right to religious freedom enshrined in the Russian Constitution. The UK calls on the Russian government to uphold its commitment to this basic human right.\"\n","category":"rights","date":"2017-09-04T17:10:43+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/09/212/k.jakubowska_shutterstock.com_1_0_hu_5b07e79946eef0fc.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/09/212/k.jakubowska_shutterstock.com_1_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/09/212/k.jakubowska_shutterstock.com_1_0_hu_ba1022958e431c8c.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/09/212/k.jakubowska_shutterstock.com_1_0_hu_4ba8c7a949044f56.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/09/212.html","regions":["eu"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["eu","international","osce","pace","state-department","fsem"],"title":"The UN called on Russia to abolish the List of Extremist Materials","type":"news"},{"body":"STRASBOURG. The European Court of Human Rights has unanimously ruled that the actions of the police and the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, Ekaterina Gorina, violated justice and violated the right to religious freedom of citizens when they disrupted a legitimate Christian meeting of 150 deaf Jehovah's Witnesses in Chelyabinsk. In ruling in favour of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Court reaffirmed an important principle upheld by the Russian Federation: the right to freedom of religion.\nThe Court's judgment in this case, known as Konstantin Kuznetsov and Others v. the Russian Federation, states: \"It is undeniable that the joint study and discussion of liturgical texts by members of the community of Jehovah's Witnesses is a recognized form of professing [their] religion during worship and teaching. [...] In addition, [the Court] notes the consistency of the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which recognizes that the holding of liturgical meetings and congresses requires the prior permission of the authorities and there is no need to notify them of the holding of these meetings.\"\nThe Court also found that the actions of the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission and the police officers were unlawful.\nThe Court ruled that the plaintiff, and in his person all the applicants, should be paid an amount of EUR 30,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 60,544 in respect of costs and expenses.\nThe Kuznetsov case became more significant when the activities of the registered Jehovah's Witnesses community in Moscow were banned in 2004. It is this ban, as well as the related issue of religious freedom, that is the subject of a complaint in another case before the European Court.\nSpeaking about the significance of this decision, Vasily Kalin, chairman of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, said: \"Today's decision is a victory for all Russians who value the constitutional right to freedom of peaceful assembly.\"\n","category":"victory","date":"2007-01-11T14:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":false,"permalink":"/en/news/2007/01/21.html","regions":["chelyabinsk","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","international-community","international"],"title":"The European Court declared illegal the disruption of worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses in Chelyabinsk ","type":"news"}]