Wives of arrested Jehovah's Witnesses appeal to the Human Rights Council

June 7, 2018 wives of arrested Jehovah's Witnesses appealed to the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Human Rights with an open letter.

The letter mentions 17 people arrested on charges of participating in in the activities of the extremist organization Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as numerous detentions of believers in different regions.

The authors of the appeal believe that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 20 April 2017 “did not ban the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, but concerns exclusively legal entities. Then why are law enforcement acting against the will of the government of our country? Who benefits in our country today mass repression of believers? Why are our relatives accused of a serious crime? with the prospect of spending 6 to 10 years in prison for an alleged extremist activities under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation? Why are the police wrong? interpret the peaceful confession of faith in God as participation in an extremist organization?   

The detainees, according to the letter, representatives of law enforcement organs "in the truest sense of the word offer to sign a paper to avoid punishment for "extremism"" . "But we We can't stop believing in God. It is a right that every person has the moment of your birth. The Russian Federation is a multi-confessional state, and we, as citizens of Russia, have the right to count on respect and protection of our rights by the state ,” the document says.

In addition, believers fear that persecution “for extremism” will be followed by the removal of children from families of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The authors of the appeal ask members of the Presidential Human Rights Council to protect believers from persecution. Sources

• Message from the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. 2018. June 7th.