Collective Open Letter from Wives of Citizens Arrested for Their Faith

English translation (PDF)

To the Council under the President of the Russian Federation
on the development of civil society
and human rights

Dear Mikhail Alexandrovich! Distinguished members of the Human Rights Council,

An open letter to you is our cry of despair. Our loved ones — husbands, breadwinners, fathers of our children, peaceful, honest and compassionate people — are thrown into jail on suspicion of reading the commandments of the Bible with us, with our children and friends, and praying to God, whose name is written in the Bible as Jehovah.

To date, 17 believers are languishing in pre-trial detention centers in Russia. One of them has been detained for more than a year. Dozens of believers in 11 regions of Russia are under house arrest and recognizance agreement. Every day their number is constantly increasing. Given that there are 175,000 followers of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, we are concerned about the question: how many more tens, hundreds, or thousands of prisoners of conscience are required to end this unjust criminal prosecution of people for believing in God?

Under the pretext of fighting extremism, many of us, and even our children, were threatened with weapons by riot policemen and forced to lie on the floor. Searches have been carried out in our homes, phones and computers have been taken away from us, which does not allow us to live and work normally. Family photos, passports and other documents, Bibles were confiscated. Law enforcement agencies try to make us live in fear and shudder at every knock on the door or the wail of a siren, expecting to be arrested just for our faith. Some believers have already been expelled from the factories after many years of impeccable work, with the sole justification that the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia is banned. We cannot find an answer to the question: why are we being subjected to such persecution in our country, and what religion will be appointed as the next victims after us?

Law enforcement agencies explain the persecution of our husbands for believing in God by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 20.04.2017, which liquidated all legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

At the same time, both the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation during the trial in the Supreme Court and the Government of the Russian Federation after the decision repeatedly officially stated that this court decision would not entail violations of the rights of citizens to freedom of religion.

The above-mentioned decision of the Supreme Court did not really ban the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, but applies exclusively to legal entities. Who in our country today benefits from mass repressions of believers? Why are our relatives accused of a serious crime with the prospect of spending 6 to 10 years in prison for alleged extremist activities under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation? Why do law enforcement officers mistakenly interpret the peaceful profession of faith in God as participation in an extremist organization?

Distinguished members of the Council, help us get answers to these questions.

In such a horrific environment, many of us fear for the future of our children. In our country, prerequisites have been created for the removal of children from parents whose faith in God is declared "wrong". In this light, there are disturbing reports that data on children from Jehovah's Witnesses families are being collected in educational and medical institutions. It is not surprising that almost every week entire families of our fellow believers drop everything and, in order to save their children, flee abroad to seek political asylum.

In exchange for freedom and a quiet life, we are offered to renounce our faith. This is not a figure of speech - the investigators in the literal sense of the word offer to sign the paper in order to avoid punishment for "extremism"! Otherwise, according to them, no lawyers will help us. But we cannot stop believing in God. This is a right that every person has from the moment of his birth. The Russian Federation is a multi-confessional state, and we, as citizens of Russia, have the right to count on the state's respect and protection of our rights. We are not asking for any special privileges. We ask only one thing – please protect our rights.

Dear members of the Council! A real terror has now been unleashed against an entire religion, one of the largest Christian religions in Russia! Basic human rights are violated: the right to liberty and security of person, the right to personal dignity, the right to privacy, the right to inviolability of the home, freedom of conscience and freedom of thought, freedom of religion, the right to private property.

If you do not stop the impending catastrophe, it will happen before your eyes. We are sure that you are now able to do something! We ask you to bring this information to the attention of the President of the Russian Federation, as well as to use all measures provided for by law to restore the rights of believers!

Yours sincerely, wives of persons currently in detention: