The Russian Government has stepped up its war against Jehovah’s Witnesses, imprisoning several Witnesses on account of their religious worship and confiscating the organization’s former Russia branch facilities in Solnechnoye. The confiscation came immediately after the Saint Petersburg City Court on May 3, 2018, upheld the December 2017 decision of the Russian government to seize the facilities.

The action has, however, attracted criticisms, including from a journalist, a religious expert, and Witness attorneys, who described it as legal injustice.

Meanwhile, 17 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been held in pre-trial detention across Russia. On the morning of June 8, 2018, 10 of the wives of the 17 imprisoned Witnesses sent an open letter to Mikhail Fedotov, adviser to President Vladimir Putin and chairman of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, crying out for justice.

They wrote: “This open letter to you is a cry of desperation. People who are very dear to us, our husbands, those who feed us, the fathers of our children, peaceable, honest people, who are always ready to help others, are being thrown behind bars for being suspected of reading Bible commandments and praying together with us and our children to the God whose name, as recorded in the Bible, is Jehovah.

“As of this day in Russia already 17 individuals are being held in pre-trial detention. One of our fellow believers has been in custody for over a year. Dozens of more believers, in 11 regions of Russia, are under house arrest or are forbidden to leave their cities of residence.

“With each passing day, their number is increasing. Taking into account that in Russia there are 175,000 professing the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, we wonder how many more dozens, hundreds or thousands of victims of conscience will it take before the unjust criminal persecution of people for their faith in God is brought to an end.

“Under the guise of fighting extremism, many of us, and even our children have been threatened with weapons by agents of the special forces and ordered to lie face down. Our homes have been raided and searched, our telephones and computers have been seized, so we can’t work or live a normal life. Our family photographs, our passports and other personal documents, and Bibles have been confiscated. They are trying to force us to live in fear and shake every time there’s a knock at the door or the sound of a siren on the street, as we await arrest merely for our faith. Some believers have already been dismissed from their places of work after many years of faultless work just because the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses is banned in Russia. We cannot find the answers to the questions of why we are being subjected to such harassment in our country, and which religion will be the next to fall victim after us?

“The law-enforcement agencies that are persecuting our husbands for their faith in God explain that it is because of April 20, 2017, decision of the Russian Federation Supreme Court to liquidate all legal entities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.

“However, both the Russian Federation Ministry of Justice, during the hearing at theSupreme Court, and the Russian Federation Government, after the decision was handed down, officially stated that the court’s decision would not result in any violations of the rights of citizens to freedom of worship.

“The aforementioned decision of the Supreme Court did not ban the religion of Jehovah’sWitnesses in Russia. It only involved legal entities. So why are the law-enforcement agents acting in contravention of the will of the government of our country? Who in our country benefits from the mass repression of religious believers? Why are our relatives being accused of a serious crime with the prospect of imprisonment from 6 to 10 years for fictitious extremist activity (Article 282.2 of the RF Criminal Code)? Why are the law enforcement agents mistakenly interpreting the peaceful expression of faith in God for participation in an extremist organization?

“Honorable members of the Council, please help us to receive answers to these questions.

“In the face of such monstrous circumstances, we are afraid for our children’s future. The ground has been laid for children to be torn away from parents, whose faith in God has been declared “wrong.”

"News that information on children whose parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses is being gathered in educational and medical facilities is very worrying. It is not surprising that virtually every week whole families of our fellow believers are abandoning everything and fleeing abroad to seek political asylum for the protection of their children.

“In return for freedom and a quiet life, we are being invited to disown our faith. This is not just a figure of speech—investigators have directly invited us to sign documents in order to avoid punishment for “extremism.” If not, in their words, no attorney will be able to save us. But we cannot stop believing in God. It is a right that every individual has from birth.

“The Russian Federation is a multi-confessional state, and we, as citizens of Russia, have the right to expect that our rights will be respected by the state. We are not asking for any special privileges. We are asking for just one thing – please, defend our rights.

“Honorable members of the Council! A campaign of terror has been unleashed against an entire religion, one of the largest Christian religions in Russia. Fundamental human rights are being trampled on: the right to freedom of worship and personal inviolability, the right to personal dignity, the right to privacy, the right to the inviolability of the home, to freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, freedom of worship, the right to private property.

“If the Russian government does not quickly put an end to this growing campaign of terror, the administration will be faced with a nation-wide human rights catastrophe. We are certain that you have the power to take action now! We ask that you please pass this information on to the President of the Russian Federation, and use all possible legal means to restore the rights of religious believers.

“With respect, the wives of men who are being held in custody are: Alyona Vilitkevich (Republic of Bashkortostan); Anna Zyablova (Magadan Region); Yulia Klimova (Tomsk Region); Galina Kochneva (Orenburg Region); Irina Christensen (Oryol Region); Svetlana Markina (Murmansk Region); Tatyana Petrova (Magadan Region); Anastasia Puyda (Khabarovsk Territory); Natalia Suvorova (Orenburg Region); Trofimova Ulyana (Murmansk Region).”

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