Crimean Prosecutor's Office initiates a case over the detention of five "Jehovah's Witnesses" in Sevastopol

The Crimean prosecutor's office opened a case over searches and detentions of five "Jehovah's Witnesses" in Sevastopol.

This is reported by LB.ua citing the agency's website.

"Criminal proceedings have been initiated on the fact that on October 1, 2020, the security forces of the occupying state conducted a number of illegal searches in the premises of possible members of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization in the city of Sevastopol and the subsequent detention of five people," the report says.

Criminal proceedings were initiated under Part 2 Article 162, Part 2 Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the inviolability of housing) and (illegal deprivation of liberty). For these unlawful actions, the penalty is provided in the form of imprisonment for up to five years.

Russian media report that a court in Sevastopol on Friday took into custody four people who are "suspected of creating a cell of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses that is banned in the Russian Federation." They were arrested until the third decade of November.

On their website, "Jehovah's Witnesses" reported the names of the arrested Sevastopol residents.

"Security forces in camouflage invaded at least nine local residents' dwellings. Four men and a woman were placed in a temporary detention center, but by midnight [October 1] the woman was released. (...) A criminal case has been instituted against them under an extremist article," the report says.

The Crimean Prosecutor's Office reminded that since the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula, the activities of the religious organization "Jehovah's Witnesses" in Crimea have been illegally banned, its supporters do not have the right to gather and are subject to systematic illegal criminal prosecution.