Photo: Special forces breaking down the door to the apartment of believers (Polyarny, April 18, 2018)
Photo: Special forces breaking down the door to the apartment of believers (Polyarny, April 18, 2018)
Searches and detentions of 5 believers in Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk RegionOn February 27, 2019, at least four apartments of local residents suspected of practicing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses were searched in Ulyanovsk. A number of citizens were detained and taken for interrogation to the local department of the FSB. Five citizens were detained for 48 hours to choose a measure of restraint for them.
Sergey Mysin, 53, and his wife Natalia (the couple have a daughter), Andrey Tabakov, 46, Khoren Khachikyan, 33, and Mikhail Zelensky, 58, were detained.
Law enforcers mistakenly mistake citizens' religion for participation in the activities of an extremist organization. Prominent public figures of Russia, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation, as well as international organizations - the European Union External Action Service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - drew attention to this problem. Jehovah's Witnesses have nothing to do with extremism and insist on their complete innocence. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that the decisions of the Russian courts on the liquidation and prohibition of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually."
