But police have put him under investigation as well. Timofey Zhukov, a local lawyer in Surgut and a Jehovah's Witness, has helped coordinate the defense of those charged. In Surgut, nearly two dozen Jehovah's Witnesses remain under criminal investigation and will likely face a trial on the extremism charges. When previously asked by reporters about it, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the group is banned and that there is nothing more to discuss. The Kremlin has largely refused to comment on the campaign against the Jehovah's Witnesses. "To beat the faith out of someone, that's already totalitarianism." If he believes, it means he believes," Volosnikov said. ![]() The seven men have demanded Russian federal law enforcement investigate their allegations of torture, but their requests have been repeatedly rejected, they said. I was already saying goodbye to all my relatives," he said. And they started to discuss some kind of object, right, which they would rape me with," said Artyom Kim, who said he was taken into the room three times, where he was also electrocuted and suffocated. "I was lying on the floor, all tied up with the sack on my head. Others said police injected them with a liquid and told them it would cause their hearts to stop. Some of the men said the officers threatened to rape them, pulling down their underwear and using a stun gun on their buttocks. The other men described similar torture, telling ABC News they were taken into the room one by one after refusing to confess to extremism charges. Volosnikov said police then tortured him with a stun gun before demanding he sign a confession. I was already preparing myself that I'm going to …. Then they started to close the bag so that air couldn't get in. "They put a bag over my head and put me on the floor. "They tied my hands and legs with tape," one of the men, Sergey Volosnikov, 42, told ABC News in an interview last year. There, at least seven detained men said officers tortured them, including with electric shocks, beatings and suffocation. The believers were brought for interrogation at the local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes. One morning in February 2019, in the northern city of Surgut, about 1,800 miles from Moscow, law enforcement officers rounded up around 40 Jehovah's Witnesses, according to the church. In its first years, the enforcement campaign mostly took place in regions far outside Moscow. 'I thought I was going to suffocate to death' MORE: Jehovah's Witnesses report convictions, torture in Russia "While in fact what they're dealing with is people who are praying and talking and peacefully practicing their faith." Officers act "as if some very dangerous criminal activity were actually going on," Lokshina said. Officers often appear aware there's no threat, sometimes just ringing the door bell and waiting while standing in their combat gear. The show of force is directed against people usually sitting quietly in prayer or otherwise defenseless, asleep in their pajamas. In some cases, police rip down doors with power saws and crow bars. The "extremist" designation also means that when police conduct raids on Jehovah's Witnesses, they act as though they are storming hideouts of armed terrorists.ĭozens of videos released by law enforcement show officers in full body armor and helmets, often armed with guns and batons, entering the apartments of terrified people. "It reminds me of the Inquisition," said Evgeny Kandaurov, a journalist and Jehovah's Witness whose home was raided earlier this year. ![]() "And those people are treated as dangerous criminals. ![]() "We are talking about a group of people who are practicing their religion peacefully, who are not carrying out any violent actions, who are not interfering with public order," said Tanya Lokshina, the Human Rights Watch associate director for Europe and Central Asia. Across Russia, hundreds have been charged as "extremists," and dozens have been jailed in a campaign that human rights groups have struggled to explain.īanned under the Soviet Union and authorized in the liberal years following its collapse, the renewed persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses is seen by some as the frightening return of Soviet oppression once thought gone as well as a reflection of how security services under President Vladimir Putin are turning the clock back on dissent. The community has been subjected to hundreds of raids and arrests by Russian security forces and, in some places, alleged torture. The estimated 175,000 adherents in Russia are now equated with members of dangerous terrorist organizations. The Russian supreme court that year banned the religion as "extremist," and in doing so unleashed what is perhaps one of the worst but most mysterious persecution campaigns in Russia. ![]() These are the fears Jehovah's Witnesses have lived with in Russia since the group was outlawed in the country in 2017.
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