FSB harasses Jehovah's Witnesses

[Guest Kurt]

SERIES OF SEARCHES CONDUCTED IN KARACHAY-CHERKESSIA SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH SEARCHES IN STAVROPOL
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 3 October 2016
 
On 20 September 2016, the border directorate of the FSB for Karachay-Cherkessia conducted 4 searches ("surveys") in homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in the urban-type settlement of Mednogorskii and the village of Kurdzhinovo.
 
The warrant for conducting the searches was issued by I. Gerbekov, a judge of the Supreme Court of the Karachay-Cherkessia republic, justifying it by saying that one of the believers, Svetlana Isaeva, who lives in Mednogorskii, was engaged in attracting others into her religion and, allegedly, she distributed books that are included in the list of extremist materials among her fellow believers, in whose homes searches also were conducted.
 
A week after the searches a FSB officer returned to Isaeva's home and demanded that she change her written testimony and admit that she distributed extremist literature. Isaeva refused, since that did not correspond with reality. 

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Court punishes Jehovah's Witnesses for possession of "extremist" literature

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CONGREGATION FINED IN PETROZAVODSK
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 3 October 2016
 
On 3 October it was reported that the Petrozavodsk city court fined the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses 50,000 rubles on the basis of article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law (mass distribution of extremist materials or their possession for purposes of distribution).
 
We recall that on 3 August 2016 the MVD for the republic of Karelia published a notice that some days earlier, as the result of operational search activities in Petrozavodsk, documents of the local organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and 12 brochures from among those included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials were seized. This occurred after armed personnel of OMON and FSB interrupted a worship service in the building of the organization on 28 July 2016. The press service of the Jehovah's Witnesses reported that at that time the police conducted interrogations of believers, took their telephones from them, threw several to the floor, pinning them to the floor with their knees, and kicked them. Members of the congregation also declared that the police planted the brochures included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials in the premises.
 
We recall that we consider bans on the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist and prosecution of believers for distributing it to be illegal. Such actions by the authorities we consider to be religious discrimination.