In Crimea, occupying Russian forces organize repressions against Jehovah's Witnesses

This is reported by the Krym.Realii project with reference to the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses.

It is reported that on August 14 and 16, at least nine searches were conducted in the homes of members of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization in Armiansk, Simferopol, Saki and Dzhankoi.

"In Simferopol, Kateryna Melniychuk's house was searched. The woman felt sick, and her husband's blood pressure rose. Kateryna was informed that a criminal case was opened against her and after interrogation she was released on her own recognizance," the article says.

The son-in-law of the defendant in one of these cases in Simferopol, Dmytro Zakharevych, was also searched. On the same day, the man received a decision to bring him to criminal responsibility. The court placed him and another believer under house arrest.

In Armiansk, security forces searched the man in two of his homes. After that, the believer was taken for interrogation. And in the city of Saki, seven Russians, including four armed men, conducted a two-hour inspection in the house of a 62-year-old member of a religious organization. They seized his electronic equipment.

Details of the searches in Dzhankoi are not yet known.

Currently, 25 believers in Crimea have been brought to criminal responsibility. Six of them are serving their sentences in a penal colony.

• In March 2020, in Crimea, the occupiers sentenced a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, an organization banned in Russia, to 6 years in prison. At that time, Human Rights Watch accused Russia of persecuting Jehovah's Witnesses.