Photo: Searches in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses 2017-2019
Photo: Searches in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses 2017-2019
Update. The figures in this news have been updated and updated as of July 31, 2019. In less than six months after the verdict of Dennis Christensen, the number of searches in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses has doubled to 587!
We are talking only about those searches that were carried out in the homes of believers after and as a result of the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of July 17, 2017 on the liquidation and prohibition of the activities of all 396 registered religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses.
After the widespread resonance that was caused on February 6, 2019 by the brutal sentence of Dennis Christensen, the Russian law enforcement system significantly increased pressure on believers. If by February 6, 2019, the total number of searches in the apartments of believers conducted over the previous year and a half was 296, then by July 31, 2019, there were 291 more of them and now stands at 587.
Jehovah's Witnesses consider court decisions against them to be unlawed.
Over the past 2 years, more than 90 criminal cases have been initiated against Jehovah's Witnesses in 43 regions of Russia. At least 241 people are in the status of suspects, accused or convicted. At least 129 believers were sent to detention centers or pre-trial detention centers, and although most of them have their sentences commuted, 39 people, including 6 women, are behind bars and another 27 are under house arrest.
Searches after Christensen's sentencing took place in Abakan (4), Arkhangelsk (6), Budyonnovsk (9), Volgograd (7), Yevpatoria (2), Zeya (5), Karachaevsk (1), Karpinsk (1), Kemerovo (2), Kirov (12), Kostroma (1), Krasnoyarsk (5), Kurilsk (2), Luchegorsk (3), Magadan (8), Makhachkala (10), Minusinsk (5), Moscow (1), Nevinnomyssk (1), Neftekumsk (2), Nefteyugansk (1), Nizhny Novgorod (31), Novosibirsk (18), Omsk (6), Partizansk (2), Petrozavodsk (2), Porkhov (2), Pyt-Yakha (1), Rostov-on-Don (13), Saransk (9), Sevastopol (11), Severodvinsk (7), Smolensk (5), Surgut (22), Sukhobuzimsky (10), Ulyanovsk (6), Unecha (22), Urai (2), Ussuriysk (2), Ufa (2), Chelyabinsk (10), Cherepovets (1), Sharypovo (11), Yalta (8).