The total number of Jehovah’s Witnesses prosecuted for their faith has reached 154.
Memorial Human Rights Centre continues to monitor the unlawful prosecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The list of Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been prosecuted was previously last updated at the beginning of February 2019 when the names of 19 Jehovah’s Witnesses from various Russian regions were added.
Memorial Human Rights Centre is aware of at least six new persons prosecuted and remanded in custody:
Atryakhin, Vladimir Andreevich
Belosludtsev, Yury Nikolaevich
Buglak, Irina Gennad’evna
Sergeev, Sergei Aleksandrovich
Spirin, Evgeny Andreevich
Shevchuk, Aleksandr Stanislavovich
Six Jehovah’s Witness have been placed under house arrest pending trial:
Kairyak, Evgeny Nikolaevich
Kogut, Khasan Abduvaitovich
Maletskov, Valery Vladimirovich
Mysin, Sergei Aleksandrovich
Sazonov, Andrei Vladimirovich
Seredkin, Aleksandr Ivanovich
We have identified a further 63 Jehovah’s Witnesses who are at liberty but subject to criminal prosecution for peaceful profession of their faith:
Agadzhanov, Sergei Artemovich
Alushkina Tatyana Sergeevna
Aminzhanov, Ilkhom Aripzhanovich
Asatryan, Liubov’ Ivanovna
Baranovsky Roman
Baranovskaya Valentina
Berchuk, Aleksei Aleksandrovich
Boronos, Vyacheslav Pavlovich
Burenesku, Vasily Vasil’evich
Volosnikov, Sergei Vladimirovich
Gargalyk, Savely Georgievich
Gerasimov, Artem Viacheslavovich
German, Gennady Vasil’evich
Golik, Dmitry Mikhailovich
Gridasov, Roman Aleksandrovich
Dergacheva, Galina Sergeevna
Dulova, Venera Nikolaevna
Zhugin, Nikolai Nikolaevich
Zhukov, Timofei Viktorovich
Zagulin, Dmitry Nikolaevich
Zelensky, Mikhail Grigor’evich
Kardakova, Inna Alekseevna
Kim, Artem Stanislavovich
Kobotov, Igor’ Sergeevich
Kozak, Evgeny Aleksandrovich
Komissarov, Sergei Vasil’evich
Kuz’o, Taras Grigor’evich
Kulakov, Sergei Vladimirovich
Lekontsev, Pavel Aleksandrovich
Loginov, Sergei Pavlovich
Logunov, Sergei Viktorovich
Matveev, Aleksei Nikolaevich
Moiseenko, Konstantin
Mysina, Natal’ya Aleksandrovna
Ozhiganov, Grigory Yur’evich
Ol’khova, Galiya Anvarovna
Ostapenko, Anton
Petrov, Igor’ Vladimirovich
Plekhov, Aleksei Nikolaevich
Potylitsyn, Sergei Aleksandrovich
Pryanikov, Aleksandr Vital’evich
Revyakin, Viktor Anatol’evich
Romashov, Pavel Yur’evich
Rysikov, Leonid Nikit’evich
Severinchik, Artur Vasil’evich
Solntsev, Mikhail Yur’evich
Solntseva, Oksana Mikhailovna
Tabakov, Andrei Vladimirovich
Teterin, Vladimir Aleksandrovich
Trifonov, Igor’ Petrovich
Udintsev, Evgeny Georgievich
Fedin, Evgeny Anatol’evich
Fefilov, Viktor Aleksandrovich
Khabarov, Aleksei Nikolaevich
Khachikyan, Khoren Nikolaevich
Khvostova, Irina Vladimirovna
Chaplykina, Marina Stanislavovna
Chibisova, Anastasiya Petrovna
Shamov, Aleksandr Petrovich
Shepel’, Viola Aleksandrovna
Shulyarenko, Sergei Aleksandrovich
Shchepin, Andrei Vladimirovich
Yakku, Evgeny Viktorovich
As of 1 May 2019, the total number of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are political prisoners in Russia is at least 55, of whom 22 have been remanded in custody and 33 are under house arrest. In addition, at least 99 Jehovah's Witnesses are being prosecuted for political reasons but remain at liberty. Over the past year of incessant repressive measures, at least 154 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been prosecuted, a figure that continues to increase.
The relative slowdown in the rate of increase of the number of those on remand is because, alongside the continuing new detentions of Jehovah’s Witnesses, there is a tendency for some of those remanded in custody earlier to be released and placed under house arrest. Similarly, political prisoners under house arrest are quite often released and placed under travel restrictions.
Our list is evidently incomplete and we shall continue to update it.
A regularly updated list of persons prosecuted for belonging to the Jehovah’s Witness faith is available on our website.
A new unprecedented circumstance in the cases against Jehovah’s Witnesses is the use of torture against suspects after their arrest. It is known that on 15-17 February 2019 at least seven Jehovah’s Witnesses from the city of Surgut (in the Khanty-Mansiisky autonomous district) were subjected to torture. The victims assert they were subjected to electric shocks, suffocation and beatings in the building of the Surgut headquarters of the Investigative Committee. An earlier public statement by President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting of the Presidential Council on Human Rights, that he does not understand why Jehovah’s Witnesses are being prosecuted when, in his words, they are ‘just the same Christians as any others,’ did not prevent the torture of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In the period since the beginning of February 2019, two defendants in cases brought against Jehovah’s Witnesses, included in the list maintained by Memorial Human Rights Centre, were convicted. Both convictions were handed down by the Railway district court in the city of Orel. On 6 February 2019, Danish citizen Dennis Christensen was sentenced to six years in a general regime prison colony; on 1 April 2019, Sergei Skrynnikov was fined 250 000 roubles.
We continue to consider the designation of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ organisations as extremist to be unfounded and as violations of the right to freedom of conscience and of the right of association. We consider the criminal prosecution of followers of this peaceful faith to be unlawful and discriminatory.
We consider all those Jehovah’s Witnesses remanded in custody or under house arrest to be political prisoners and call for their immediate releases.
We also demand an end to the criminal prosecution of those Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been placed under other forms of pre-trial restriction.
Recognition of an individual as a political prisoner, or of a prosecution as politically motivated, does not imply that Memorial Human Rights Centre shares or approves the individual’s views, statements or actions.
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