Detentions of Jehovah's Witnesses in February 2010

Here we perform the translation of Jehova's Witnesses own materials. Translated by James freeman.

On September 22, 2009, the regional court of the Rostovskaya Oblast found 34 Jehovah's Witness publications :extremist; and determined that the Jehovah's Witnesses of Taganrog were :extremist.; On December 8, 2009, the Russian Supreme Court upheld the Rostovskaya regional court ruling and publications by the Jehovah's Witness now appear on the government's list of banned extremist material. In the aftermath of the September ruling by the Rostovskaya regional court, Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia have faced extensive persecution. The number of incidents in which Jehovah's Witnesses have been detained or attacked in Russia has been increasing dramatically ever the regional court's ruling. In particular, there were 100% more reported attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in January and February of 2010 than there were in September and November of 2009. Similarly, there were 33% more reported detentions of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in February 2010 than in January of 2010. Specific incidents, which have been taken from Sova center reports, are related below.

In February 2010 there were a number of occasions in which Jehovah's Witnesses were detained.

On February 1 2010 in the village of Uva (Umurtskaya Republic), two female Jehovah's Witnesses were detained by policeman while preaching. Without having introducing themselves or showing their badges, the policemen asked for the believers' documents. They rudely forced the women into their car and accompanied them to the police station. At the station, they interrogated the believers for several hours. The policemen were extremely rude, and they threatened to accuse the believers of perpetrating criminal acts (theft or swindling). They also compelled the believers to confess to these crimes and forbid them from making telephone call. They took one of the believer's personal belongings, including her telephone. They then wrote down the account number on her credit card. As a result of the interminable interrogation, one of the believers began to feel sick. The detainees were released 3-5 hours after initially being detained.

On February 3 2010 in Dzerzhinsk (Nizhegorodskaya Oblast), female Jehovah's Witnesses were detained while preaching. They were taken to the police station, fingerprinted, and photographed even though an incident report was not created. A document authorizing the seizure of their religious literature was created. The policemen took a statement from the believers about where they had received the religious literature and what the purpose of a meeting of residents of an apartment building had been. The policemen emphasized that they were questioning instead of interrogating the believers. Therefore, a defense attorney could not be admitted to the proceedings. Additionally, the policemen refused to admit the husband of one of the detainees when he arrived at the police station.

On February 4 2010 in the town of Cerishevo (Amurskaya Oblast), two Jehovah's Witnesses were telling people about their religious convictions. A man emerged out of a nearby apartment and revealed that he was an FSB employee. The man demanded to see the documents of the believers. One Jehovah's Witness left after showing the FSB employee her passport. The other Jehovah's Witness was detained by a group of servicemen that had been summoned by the FSB employee. In the commandant's office, the detained believer refused to present his passport. Therefore he was taken to the regional office of internal affairs (RUVD). At this location, a statement was taken from him.

On February 4th 2010 in the city of Gubina (Belgorodskaya Oblast), a Jehovah's Witness was detained and taken to the police station. He was asked to show the police the contents of his bag. Allegedly, this was because he had or was suspected of having committed theft earlier. At the station, a report was created in which he was accused, on the basis of the laws of the Belgorodskaya Oblast, of violating the law by thrusting his religious views on others and troublesomely pestering citizens. A statement was taken from the detained about both his personal life and religious activities.

On February 6th 2010 in Khabarovsk (Voloorodskaya Oblast) three Jehovah's Witnesses who were preaching were detained and taken to the police station. They were ordered to write explanations for their behavior. Also, the police took copies of their passports and copies of other documents situated in their passport packets. In reference to the actions of the believers, reports were created about the administrative violation of troublesomely pestering citizens with the goal of religious agitation, in which the police cited the law of the Vologodskaya Oblast. The policemen were notified that one of the detainees felt sick and was experiencing a diabetic bout. However, they ignored this notification.

On February 8 2010 in the village of Altaiskoe (the Altaiskiy Kray) employees of the Public Prosecutor's Office arrived at the home of a female Jehovah's Witness. When she refused to accompany them, they arranged for a meeting with her at the investigatory department of the Public Prosecutor's Office. The woman did not appear. The employees of the Public Prosecutor's Office then again arrived at her house. Despite protests from her relatives, an investigator from the Public Prosecutor's Office entered the building and demanded that the woman accompany them. At the Public Prosecutor's Office, the woman was not told her rights. Despite a request on her part, she was not given an attorney. Moreover, her efforts to consult with an attorney by telephone were hindered. The employees of the Public Prosecutor's Office took a statement from the woman, which she signed after, on the basis of her account of the incident, they exerted pressure on her.

On February 8 2010 in the Naberezhnih Chenlah (the Republic of Tatarstan), two female Jehovah's Witnesses who were preaching were detained by policemen. According to the detainees, the policemen replied with threats when they were asked by the believers for copies of the reports that the policemen had created.

On February 10 2010 in Karachev (Bryanskaya Oblast), two female Jehovah's Witnesses were detained. Policemen arrived at their home two hours before the detention. The police were interested in whether the believers had been eyewitnesses to a theft that had occurred at the building across the street. After the believers told the policemen about their religious convictions, the policemen questioned them. After one hour, the Jehovah's Witnesses went to a house that they were looking out after because the homeowner was away. Once the believers approached the house, the policemen exited their vehicle and approached the Jehovah's Witnesses. They ordered the believers to sit in the car. One of the women asked whether the policemen had written a report of the detention. The policeman then said that they were not detaining the believers; they simply wanted to get acquainted with them and learn who they were. Therefore, they wanted take them to the police station and both photograph and fingerprint them. The detainees were permitted to retrieve their passports from their home. At the police station, statements were taken from them.

On February 10 2010 in the Krasnoufimska (Sverdlovskaya Oblast) two female Jehovah's Witnesses who were preaching were detained. At the police station, copies of their passports were made. Additionally, a search was conducted and their personal belongings were taken. According to the detained, the police both refused to grant the believers an attorney and did not tell the Jehovah's Witnesses their rights. The policemen stated that they did not inspect the personal belongings of the detained women and only inspected the detainees' extremist literature. One of the detainees asked what legal norm they were suspected of violating. According to the detainees, the police stated that the believers were under suspicion of inciting interreligious dissension. Discounting this explanation, the detainees were not provided with any documents that the police had formulated ( a report of the detention, inspection, or seizure).

On February 10 201 in Chelyabinsk, two Jehovah's Witnesses, one of whom was accompanied by her 7 year old son, were preaching. They were detained by policemen wearing civilian clothes. The detainees were photographed at the entrance to the building. At the station, their religious literature was seized and a report of the seizure was created. According to the detainees, the believers were not provided with copies of the reports of the interrogation. The policemen took copies that had been made of one of the believer's passports. They also took powers of attorney that had been made in regard to medical intervention from the same believer.

On February 12 2010 in Naberezhnix Chelnax (the Republic of Tatarstan), a policeman arrived at the home of a female Jehovah's Witness. The believer was absent so the policeman instead talked with her husband and asked him whether or not she read religious literature. Having seen religious literature in the apartment, the policeman demanded that the husband hand it over and threatened to conduct a search if the believer's husband refused to do so. The believer was then detained after she returned home. At the police station, she was interrogated. According to her, the interrogators were calm at first. However, they later began to yell and use foul language. According to the believer, they also threatened that there would be a trial. In response to her request for a copy of the report that they had made, she received, on the basis of her account, the following answer: :you can ask for this when you are at the public prosecutor's office and attorneys are there.; The woman was voluntarily issued a copy of a report affirming that she had voluntarily handed over her banned literature only after she agreed to sign an explanatory document that the policemen had created. The copy of the report that the detainee was handed lacked either her signature and had been created without witnesses.

On February 13 2010 in Alatir (the Republic of Chuvashiya), two female Jehovah's Witnesses who were preaching were detained and taken to the police station. Their documents were checked. The policemen said that they would conduct criminal proceedings because the women had forbidden literature. They asked the detainees to show the policemen the publications that they had with them. The Jehovah's Witnesses handed over the literature. A report about the incident was not created by the policemen, and the detainees were released.

On February 15 2010 in Petrovsk (Saratovskaya Oblast) a Jehovah's Witness was detained on the street and taken to the police station. According to the detainee, the policemen was interested in both how many Jehovah's Witnesses were attending a gathering that was to be held soon and where that gathering would take place. They also wanted to know who would be in charge of the gathering. Additionally, the policeman asked to see literature about the organization. A report about this incident was not created.

On February 15 2010 in Satka (Chelyabinskaya Oblast) a Jehovah's Witness who was preaching was detained. The policemen asked the believer to extract his personal belongings from his bag. They then conducted a search. The detainee was fingerprinted and photographed against his will. The policemen recognized the address on the detainee's residence permit. They subsequently went to his area of residence repeatedly.

On February 17 2010 in Kursanov (Tambovskaya Oblast) policemen detained two Jehovah's Witnesses who were preaching. At the police station, the policemen checked whether the detainees had any religious literature with them. After they checked this literature against the official list of banned extremist literature, they seized the literature and created a report of the seizure. They also fingerprinted the detainees and took statements from them. According to the detainees, the police neither presented the detainees with copies of the documents that they had created nor explained why the detainees had been detained.

On February 17 2010 in the village of Glubokiy (Rostovskaya Oblast), employees of the Russian security organs arrived at a worship service that was being conducted at the Jehovah's Witnesses' Kingdom Hall. The employees of the security forces demanded that that the meeting end and brought everyone present to the police station. At the station, they questioned the detainees. According to information received from the believers, the employees of the security organs forbid the Jehovah's Witnesses from conducting worship services. As their basis for this decision, the employees of the security organs cited a legal decree of the President concerning the prohibition of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation.

On February 18 2010 in the city of Kinel (Samarskaya Oblast), two Jehovah's Witnesses who were preaching were detained and taken to the police station. At the station, the police checked the documents of the Jehovah's Witnesses and recorded information from their passports. They also fingerprinted and photographed them. They also checked the contents of the detainees bags, but they did not seize anything.

On February 18 2010 in Tombov, two Jehovah's Witnesses were visiting a woman who had expressed a desire to learn more about the Bible. During the course of the visit, the believers were detained by policemen and taken to the city of Tambov's Head Office of Internal Affairs. At the office, a statement was taken from them and a report was created.

On February 22 2010 in the city of Penze at 10:30 PM an employee of the Public Prosecutor's Office arrived at the home of a Jehovah's Witness. After waking up the residents of the building, he demanded that the believers both answer questions about the distribution of religious literature and provide information about fellow believers.

On February 22 2010 in the village of Tselina (Rostovskaya Oblast), two Jehovah's Witnesses were detained by policemen when they were speaking to people about their religious convictions. At the police station, statements were taken from the detainees.

Jehova's Witnesses materials. Translated by J. Freeman.