Yet another attack on "Jehovah's Witnesses" in Crimea

This is reported by Radio Svoboda (Liberty).

It is noted that the searches took place on February 10 near Andriy Rogutsky and Lyudmila Shevchenko. At the same time, Bibles, notebooks, and electronic devices were seized from the faithful. During the search, Andriy Rogutsky's wife became ill and had to call an ambulance.

"The list of property seized from Lyudmila Shevchenko included the book "Sacred Nativity Scene", which does not belong to her, and was not published by Jehovah's witnesses. Lyudmila was not found to have any publications from the federal list of extremist materials," the report says.

According to the organization, the searches were conducted on the basis of a decision of the Sevastopol City Court.

The Jehovah's Witnesses organization noted that since 2018, nine of their followers from different parts of the occupied peninsula have already faced persecution on the basis of religion. Two of them were sent to a penal colony.

In December, the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses reported that Russian security forces conducted 17 searches of their representatives in the occupied Crimea in 2020.

In 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized this religious organization as extremist and banned its activities in the country. In December 2018, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, called the recognition of Jehovah's Witnesses the extremists "nonsense", saying that they were "also Christians" and there was nothing to persecute them for. However, according to the website of Jehovah's Witnesses, at the beginning of November 2020, the number of believers accused of extremism exceeded 400. Many of the detainees claimed torture.