CRIMEA: REHABILITATED BELIEVER AGAIN SUBJECTED TO REPRESSIONS
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 19 November 2018
In the course of a November operation of the F.S.B. against Jehovah's Witnesses, 78-year-old Alexander Ursu, who possesses a certificate about his rehabilitation as a victim of political repressions, was knocked off his feet. In a three-minute interview he describes the tragic events of the past that are being repeated in the present.
Alexander Ursu: "It was 6 July 1949. I was nine and a half years old. In the morning it was already hot when we were awakened. When they burst in we saw that they were soldiers. They came in and began to read that we were being deported to permanent settlement. Two soldiers began tearing things off the walls, which were on the walls, and they stacked them up: take them because they will come in handy for you.
"While others were brought and placed in a train car, relatives from our village brought some food for us. Because we had brought almost nothing with us. We did not know that we would be deported. There was no warning. It all happened suddenly.
"In the train car there already were planks on two levels. They placed us on the lower level. Another family was up above. There were two old folks traveling with us there. Across there were another two families in this car. It was a four-wheel car. They had a newborn, about two or three months. And most of them were crying because it was very hot. And it got even hotter when they held us at some stop or in the steppe. The air came only through a very small window that my head could even hardly poke through to have a look. Then the brothers made a toilet. They cut a hole in the floor and made a cover so that we could go to the toilet.
"We were always hungry. All the time. Hunger and hunger.
"They took us to the border between Kurgan and Tiumen oblasts. At the very end, deep in the wilderness. . . ."
On 15 November 2018 in the city of Dzhankoi, F.S.B. forces in support of OMON troops made a brute intrusion into the homes of citizens who are suspected of professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. A criminal case was opened on the basis of part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
F.S.B. agent: "Don't make pictures."
Unidentified voice: "What is happening? Tell me, please."
F.S.B. agent: "Some organization that is banned in Russia. Sectarians. Investigation activities are under way so please do not interfere."
According to information as of 19 November 2018, throughout Russia 93 persons are being subjected to one form or another of criminal prosecution on suspicion of professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. Forty-seven persons (2 of them citizens of the European Union) had been taken into custody. Twenty-five persons (3 of them women) remain in a SIZO and 23 persons are under house arrest. More than 35 persons are under a promise not to leave. Most of them face from 6 to 10 years in prison.
Agencies of justice in contemporary Russia view any worship of Jehovah as participation in the activity of an "extremist organization" (citing the decision of the Russian Supreme Court about liquidation of all 396 registered organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses), while the government of Russia officially declares that the Supreme Court's decision "does not contain a restriction or prohibition of professing individually the aforementioned teaching." "There is a contradiction between the declared position of the government of the Russian Federation and law enforcement practice. This cannot but evoke concern inasmuch as criminal prosecutions and arrests have taken on a systematic character," says a statement by the Council for Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the president of Russia. (tr. by PDS, posted 19 November 2018)
MASSIVE SEARCHES CONDUCTED IN HOMES OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN CRIMEA
In the night, searches were conducted in several dozen homes of adherents of the Jehovah's Witnesses. The leader of the religious group, Sergei Filatov, was arrested. This was reported on his Facebook page by journalist Anton Naumliuk.
As Naumliuk wrote, agents of the F.S.B. in Crimea conducted a massive operation during which searches and arrests were conducted at several dozen addresses. The detained Sergei Filatov was the leader of the local organization of Sivash, which was registered in 2015 and liquidated in 2017.
The first report about the special operation appeared in a Vesti-Crimea television broadcast. According to the announcer of the channel, correspondent Eduard Zdorov "was working in the city on a different topic but, having caught sight of armed people, he began investigating what was going on."
The Vesti-Crimea employee described how the searches were conducted in residences of members of a "totalitarian sect that is forbidden in Russia and is called Jehovah's Witnesses." The correspondent added that the searches were conducted at nearly 30 addresses, calling the procedure "a large-scale raid."
"According to information of a source close to law enforcement agencies, all these people are possibly somehow connected with Ukrainian intelligence services. At least they were being coordinated from the Kharkov center of Jehovah's Witnesses," the TV correspondent reported.
Zdorov also described how searches were conducted in the home of the head of the organization and extremist literature and reference books on psychology and recruitment were found in his home. According to the correspondent's information, a criminal case based on the extremism article was opened against the head of the organization, evidently Sergei Filatov.
As of the present, this is the first instance of searches and arrests of members of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization in Crimea. A few days ago, in Krasnoyarsk, mass searches also were conducted in homes of Jehovah's Witnesses. Technology was confiscated from them and they also were interrogated and threatened with criminal prosecution.
Update: Anton Naumliuk reported on Facebook the occurrence of searches was confirmed in five cases. According to the journalist's information, Sergei Filatov was suspected on the basis of part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organizing an extremist group). Members of his family were summoned for interrogation. . . . (tr. by PDS, posted 19 November 2018)
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