SK refused to institute criminal proceedings after torture of the followers of Jehovah's Witnesses in Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug

The Investigative Committee of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug) refused to institute criminal proceedings after the statements of the followers of Jehovah's Witnesses about torture by the security forces, the lawyer of the suspects of Egiazar Chernikov reported this to the MBH Media.

“They refused to initiate torture. Ermolaev, the head of the Investigative Department of the SK in Surgut, who directly developed and led these “operations” (torture - editorial approaches), gave approval to everything, ”he said.

“At the same time, he announces the media that all this is a lie, and there was no torture,” the lawyer was indignant.

“Why did they take into account the testimony of officials, and the testimony of dozens of eyewitnesses who heard screams did not take into account? This approach is no longer equal, such a check should not be taken seriously, it was not objective,” Chernikov said.

“The verification was originally biased, it was biased, the mandatory norms prescribed in the law for certain actions were not fulfilled. There was obviously such an approach. The audit was supposed to be carried out properly, but nothing was done,” the lawyer emphasized.

He added that he asked twice to get acquainted with the verification materials, but he was illegally refused. According to Chernikov, lawyers will appeal the results of this audit.

In early March, in the region, in the houses of followers of Jehovah's Witnesses, mass searches were held. Seven of 15 people detained in Surgut and other settlements of Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug followers of Jehovah's Witnesses complained to torture during interrogation in the SK department.

They said that the security forces tied them with tape, stripped naked, strangled to loss of consciousness, doused with water and beat with a stamper for several hours. During the torture, they were demanded to say where their meetings take place, who comes to them, to name the names of elders and passwords from phones. The Investigative Committee for the region began checking.

In 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the extremist activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization and banned its activities in Russia. Since the beginning of April, the country has been regularly searched and arrested by Jehovah's Witnesses. After the official ban on the work of the religious center, several criminal cases were instituted. In July of this year, Roskomnadzor introduced the website of the religious movement of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in the register of blocked traffic.