Illustrative photo
In the Irkutsk Region, the Officials Conducts Searches in the Families of Jehovah's Witnesses
Irkutsk RegionOn 4 October 2021, starting at 6:00 a.m., brigades of armed Rosgvardiya officers led by investigators surrounded the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Irkutsk and the village of Pivovarikha. At least nine searches are known to have been carried out at different addresses. Windows were broken in one of the houses.
Believers are detained for interrogation. Some were released. Among others, searches are being conducted in the family home of 52-year-old Yaroslav Kalin, as well as in the home of 63-year-old Nikolay Martynov. The news is being updated.
Update.
According to updated information, searches were carried out in 13 families of Jehovah's Witnesses. Six believers were sent to jail: 52-year-old Yaroslav Kalin, 34-year-old Mikhail Moish, 45-year-old Alexei Solnechny, 61-year-old Sergey Kosteev, 63-year-old Nikolai Martynov and 46-year-old Andrey Tolmachev. Another, 70-year-old Sergey Vasilyev, was placed under house arrest after 2 days behind bars.
The issue of choosing a preventive measure for the detained believers was decided in the Irkutsk court on October 5 and 6, 2021. On the first day, about 300 people gathered outside the courthouse, wishing to support their fellow believers. After a while, they were approached by women living nearby, who learned that there were believers in court. They brought hot tea with them to express their sympathy.
After 2017, followers of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are erroneously charged with crimes under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code, as investigators interpret ordinary religious practice as participation in the activities of an organization banned by the court. Often the victims of searches and detentions are also acquaintances, relatives of believers or even random persons taken for Jehovah's Witnesses by mistake.
Irkutsk Region became the 69th region in Russia where residents are criminally prosecuted for believing in Jehovah's God. Jehovah's Witnesses have lived in this area since the days of Operation "North", when they were victims of the largest confessional deportation in Soviet history. The believers were later rehabilitated, so the mass roundups and criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses in contemporary Russia are of concern to historians and legal scholars.
