Five Jehovah's Witnesses detained in Russia: Investigators

[Guest Nicole]

MOSCOW: Five Jehovah's Witnesses have been detained in Russia and charged with possessing weapons and running an extremist group, investigators said Wednesday (Oct 10), in the latest case targeting the banned religious movement.

They were arrested in the Kirov region northeast of Moscow, where authorities said they found two grenades and a landmine in searches of their homes.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian denomination that originated in the United States in the late 19th century.

The Russian authorities consider the movement a totalitarian sect and last year the country's supreme court banned the Jehovah's Witnesses from operating in Russia.

"They had been conducting meetings and called on others to join their organisation," Yevgenia Vorozhtsova, a spokeswoman for regional investigators, said.

She said officials were investigating how the members of the Jehovah's Witnesses had obtained the ammunition, but declined to provide further details.

Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a member of the European Association of Jehovah's Christian Witnesses, said it was the first time the Russian authorities had accused members of the movement of possessing ammunition.

"We were shocked," he said from the Latvian capital Riga. "It is both funny and strange. Why mines?"

One of those detained was a Polish national residing in Russia, he said.

SEARCHES IN SMOLENSK REGION

In a statement on Tuesday, investigators said the members of the Jehovah's Witnesses wanted the movement to continue operating in Kirov and nearby towns.

Authorities said they had organised clandestine meetings between August 2017 and September this year at which they sang hymns and read "extremist" literature banned in Russia.

They had also collected more than 500,000 rubles (US$7,500) in donations from supporters.

The five have been detained and charged on suspicion of running and financing an "extremist organisation", the statement said.

Sivulskiy said the crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia had intensified after President Vladimir Putin was re-elected for a fourth term in March.

Around 25 of their members are now in pre-trial detention in Russia, he said.

On Sunday, the FSB security service and police searched the homes of people they suspect of being members of The Jehovah's Witnesses in the western Smolensk region, the association said.

Two women from the town of Sychyovka have been incommunicado for the past three days, it said in a statement.

"They are thought to have been arrested," the statement said.

The FSB in Smolensk could not immediately provide a comment.

In a report this year, Human Rights Watch accused the Russian authorities of a "sweeping campaign" of harassment and persecution against the movement.

The Jehovah's Witnesses say they now number more than 170,000 in Russia, a country of 144 million people where most are Orthodox Christians. Thousands more of their members have fled to other countries.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/five-jehovah-s-witnesses-detained-in-russia-investigators-10812938

[Guest Nicole]

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN RUSSIA ARRESTED AFTER AUTHORITIES CLAIM THEY FOUND GRENADES AND A LANDMINE

Russian authorities detained and charged five Jehovah’s Witnesses for extremism and weapons possession in the Kirov region, officials announced on Wednesday.

The authorities say that they found two grenades and a landmine when searching the members’ homes. The arrests came amid what human rights have described as a disturbing crackdown on the religious group.

“We were shocked. It is both funny and strange. Why mines?” Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a member of the European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses said, according to Agence France-Presse, adding that one of the five people arrested was a Polish citizen living in Russia.

Authorities say that they found a “large quantity of extremist literature” and accused the group of obtaining $7,500 to fund their events.

“They had been conducting meetings and called on others to join their organization,” Yevgenia Vorozhtsova, a spokeswoman for regional investigators told AFP.

The denomination, which has around 175,000 members and 395 local chapters in Russia, was added to a list of extremist organizations and banned in 2017. Russia’s Supreme Court upheld the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses after the group made an appeal.

Russia’s Justice Ministry argued that the denomination’s distribution of pamphlets provoked hatred of other groups, but many believe that the Russian Orthodox Church’s view of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a dangerous sect may have had some influence on the ruling.

Authorities reportedly carried out raids and questioned several Jehovah’s Witnesses, including at least one child, from April to June of this year in at least 11 regions in Russia, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.

“This ban has already resulted in cases of criminal prosecutions against Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as police raids on their prayer halls, arson attacks and other forms of harassment. Jehovah’s Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as by Russia’s international commitments and international human rights standards,” Maja Kocijancic, the spokeswoman for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, said in a statement, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Amid the ongoing crackdown, several members of the denomination are looking for new places to live. One of those places is Finland, where more than 100 Jehovah’s Witnesses applied for asylum in 2017 and 2018.

“Each of these cases is dealt with on an individual basis. Persecution of these groups has not been systematic across Russia, and the approach of the ministry has taken this into account,” Finnish immigration officials told The Independent.

https://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-arrested-grenade-landmine-1163078

[Space Merchant]

@Nicole The Kremlin are trying to brand the faith group and set them up to look like Terrorist, granted among the 175,000, these folks wouldn't lift butter knife at someone. The FSB is also no stranger to setting folks up to fool the general public, moreover, Kremlin controlled media who has been having more free reign since the State Duma are feeding people the lies.

It's crazy how far people will go for a small remnant of 175,000 people.

[Evacuated]

 

On 10/12/2018 at 3:16 AM, Nicole said:

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN RUSSIA ARRESTED AFTER AUTHORITIES CLAIM THEY FOUND GRENADES AND A LANDMINE

Even the good old "BEEB" picked this one up. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45815889

Perhaps this is an example of what WT August 2018 p4 pp5 called "an exaggerated and outrageous account" as there appears to be a conflict in the way the story has been spun: Jehovah's Witnesses Are Not Related to Ammunition in Kirov

[Space Merchant]

@Gone Away Indeed, and it is even worse in Russia.

[Guest Nicole]

On 10/12/2018 at 6:38 AM, Space Merchant said:

@Nicole The Kremlin are trying to brand the faith group and set them up to look like Terrorist, granted among the 175,000, these folks wouldn't lift butter knife at someone. The FSB is also no stranger to setting folks up to fool the general public, moreover, Kremlin controlled media who has been having more free reign since the State Duma are feeding people the lies.

It's crazy how far people will go for a small remnant of 175,000 people.

I agree, it is the modus operandi of Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, people who do not think like these governments are tried and sentenced as terrorists and yes they control most of the media at their countries

 

[Srecko Sostar]

On 10/12/2018 at 2:38 PM, Space Merchant said:

these folks wouldn't lift butter knife at someone.

Yes, i agree with statement. General intention of JW is to be peaceful.

If some weapon would be found in home of JW in USA i would not be surprised. USA have some culture of weapon in some States, as i can see from Europe :))))) across a Ocean.

But, there is some JW with short nerves and it would be possible to see some fight, by words and by hands too  . :))))  I know for some fight, while i was went to kingdom hall before some 8-10 years in Zagreb, between JW members, who are of Romani people. Some issue with business and money of course, ( i do not think it is about women... but that can be a reason sometimes too, haha)

 

[Space Merchant]

42 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

Yes, i agree with statement. General intention of JW is to be peaceful.

So are the A.N.(Alexei Navalny) heroes, and yet in Russia more than 1,300 of them have been arrested, all this going on with the FSB hunting for JWs and or anyone who is connected to them, while school professors are to focus on them and them alone, that even cause the Non-Orthodoxy to react.

42 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

If some weapon would be found in home of JW in USA i would not be surprised. USA have some culture of weapon in some States, as i can see from Europe :))))) across a Ocean.

Not everyone in America is for weapons, not everyone in America is for giving weapons to the governments either, granted with the big protest regarding school shootings and the situation with Parkland Florida. As with JWs, it is common that some of them had own weapons before they entered that faith, as with others who had their own situations.

This I agree with, as for Europe they have their own network of getting weapons left an right, but the most common in the EU is knife attacks, oppose to the US whereas it is mostly firearm and or assault rifle attacks.

Therefore, some people end up training themselves, and or others. i.e. when met with a knife wielding attacker, such ones try to draw you in close while an attacker with a gun will keep his or her distance so you do not disarm them.

Some cases one has to comply, other cases one has to take opportunity, or more or less, it is a fight or flight situation, and or the act of getting out of TDZ referred to as The Danger Zone.

That being said, in the US, in most cases, it is commonly shoot first ask questions later type of situations, and they will target you if you are of a specific color or nationality in some cases, but not ALL of the US is bad, in this sense.

As I have told you before, there is good people and bad people.

42 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

But, there is some JW with short nerves and it would be possible to see some fight, by words and by hands too  . :))))  I know for some fight, while i was went to kingdom hall before some 8-10 years in Zagreb, between JW members, who are of Romani people. Some issue with business and money of course, ( i do not think it is about women... but that can be a reason sometimes too, haha)

Well if it is something illegal it would pop up in the media in some way or form. If anything I can try to find a source. Other than that, some people who use to do bad things will seek out to be religious, and have a faith, repenting for their misdeeds. So some people will actually turn over a new leaf and change.

That being said, the situation in Russia is actually grim, I heard that the website that tracks people using that software I mentioned to JTR is still blocked as if the algorithm or something keeps changing. But chances are that Hunting List is bigger, and to the FSB it is open season on the religious, which includes JWs. The FSB will never, ever target the RoC because the RoC is in connection with the State Duma and the Kremlin.

 

Also I'd like to add Alexei Navalny has been released from Prison, he is the guy who is and or has exposed Kremlin corruption:

https://www.rferl.org/a/navalny-released-from-russia-jail-antikremlin-protests-/29542488.html

 

 

[The Librarian]

Jehovah's Witnesses Headquarters response: