Photo: Special forces breaking down the door to the apartment of believers (Polyarny, April 18, 2018)
The morning of March 20, 2019, for Jehovah's Witnesses in Magadan began with an invasion of their homes by FSB officers. Searches were carried out in at least 4 houses of believers, but there are suspicions that searches were carried out in another 5 houses, and their residents were taken to the FSB for interrogations. According to law enforcement officers, 9 new criminal cases have been initiated in the city for believing in God.
During the searches, all electronic devices were seized from citizens: tablets, smartphones, laptops, cameras, all memory cards and flash drives, as well as notebooks and other personal belongings. The search in the Solntsev family took place in the presence of their 9-year-old child. Nothing is known about the new arrests.
Earlier, on May 30, 2018, a criminal case was opened in the city and 4 believers were sent to jail for several months. Now all four are under house arrest.
Law enforcers mistakenly mistake citizens' religion for participation in the activities of an extremist organization. Prominent public figures of Russia, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation, as well as international organizations - the European Union External Action Service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - drew attention to this problem. Jehovah's Witnesses have nothing to do with extremism and insist on their complete innocence. 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 teachings individually."
Update. On April 9, 2019, it became known that 9 criminal cases initiated against 3 men and 6 women were merged by the investigation into one proceeding and attached to the case of Puida and others.
