Two Jehovah's Witnesses are detained in Moscow and a criminal case for practicing their faith is initiated. Some believers are reporting beatings

After a wave of searches that took place in Moscow and the Moscow region on February 10, 2021, 43-year-old Aleksandr Serebryakov and 43-year-old Yuriy Temirbulatov were detained. On February 12, 2021, the Savelovsky District Court of Moscow is scheduled to select a deterrence measure for the two men.

What are the believers accused of? In its press release, the Investigative Committee announced that a criminal case had been opened under the article for organizing and participating in the activities of an extremist organization (parts 1 and 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Believers are accused of the fact that in the north of Moscow “conspiratorial gatherings were held in one of the apartments located on Dybenko Street, where the followers studied religious literature and information contained in other sources of information propagating the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, and carried out other actions typical of this associations. In addition, the organizers held online meetings via video link. " The case is being investigated by the Investigation Department for the North Administrative District of the Main Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the city of Moscow. It is not known whether this case is related to other criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses in the capital, for example, the case of Tchaikovsky and others in Moscow or the case of Nikiforov and others in Chekhov.

The scale of the February roundup. In the early morning of February 10, 2021, representatives of law enforcement agencies with attesting witnesses and camera operators began to gather at some entrances of residential buildings in Khovrino and Levoberezhny district of Moscow, as well as Khimki and Chekhov. In a press release from the Investigative Committee it is said that the searches were carried out at 16 addresses of the believers' residence together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the FSB of Moscow and the Moscow Region with the support of the National Guard. Beginning at 5:30 am, families of Jehovah's Witnesses began to inform friends and family about the incursions into their homes. At least 14 searches have been confirmed. After the raids, at least 18 believers were interrogated until late in the evening in the buildings of the Investigative Committee on Kuusinen Street in Moscow.

Beatings and bullying. The TV channels were flown around the footage of the invasion of the believers by law enforcers dressed in helmets and body armor and armed with machine guns. The believers who have been lifted out of bed lie on the floor with their hands behind their heads. One of them is taken away with handcuffs fastened behind his back. During one of the searches, the security forces beat two men, although they did not offer any resistance. After that, their hands were tied with plastic mounting straps. When one of the believers was pushed and fell onto the bed, the tie broke. For this, his hands were tied with three more clamps. The men were in this position while the search was going on. In addition, the security forces used gross obscene language and expressed derogatory comments about the religion of the apartment residents. At the end of the search, the family noticed that a large amount of personal savings had been stolen from them.

The logic of the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses is based on the assumption that faith in God is "a continuation of the activities of an extremist organization." "Proving" the religion of the accused, which they do not hide anyway, the investigation automatically interprets this fact as the activity of a banned legal entity. Foreign leaders and organizations also unanimously condemn the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. These include the European Union's foreign policy service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and 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 teaching individually."