Large-scale operation against Jehovah's Witnesses in Surgut

Early in the morning of February 15, 2019, in Surgut, Lyantor and other settlements of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, mass searches were carried out in the homes of citizens who are suspected of professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to incomplete data, 15 people were detained and taken to the investigating authorities.

It is not known whether the raids are related to the investigation of the criminal case in Urai (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug), in which the 38-year-old father of two children, Andrei Sazonov, has already been sent to jail . The case was opened there by the Investigative Committee of Russia for imaginary organization and participation in the activities of an extremist organization. Searches of believers, numbering in the hundreds, turn the lives of innocent people into a nightmare, undermine their health, cause deep emotional trauma and cast a shadow on their reputation in the eyes of neighbors, employers and others.

Law enforcers mistakenly mistake citizens' religion for participation in the activities of an extremist organization. Prominent public figures of Russia, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation, as well as international organizations - the European Union External Action Service, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - drew attention to this problem. Jehovah's Witnesses have nothing to do with extremism and insist on their complete innocence. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that the decisions of the Russian courts on the liquidation and prohibition of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses "do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually."