In Karachay-Cherkessia, law enforcers searched for extremist literature from a mother of many children

A few months before the December raids in Cherkessk , security forces searched the home of a resident of the village of Ordzhonikidze, who is raising four children alone. This happened back in June 2019, but the details have become known only now.

On the morning of June 1, law enforcement officers approached Indira, a mother of many children, on the street when she was talking to her neighbors. Presenting a search warrant, they entered the house, the neighbors were invited as witnesses. The search took place in the presence of the woman's three minor children. For two hours, the operatives searched for "extremist" literature, even checking a school textbook. One of them asked if Indira knew that the court had banned Russian Jehovah's Witnesses organizations. According to the woman, the senior in the group said that he had nothing against Jehovah's Witnesses, "just doing his job."

Finding nothing, the security forces apologized and left. As Indira herself said, she had previously noticed surveillance of herself in Karachaevsk.

Back in 2016, in two settlements of Karachay-Cherkessia — the village of Mednogorsky and the village of Kurdzhinovo — as part of an administrative case, the premises of local residents who were suspected of distributing "extremist literature" were examined. However, at that time the searches did not entail criminal prosecution of believers. As a result of December searches in Cherkessk, 43-year-old Albert Batchaev was arrested, against whom a criminal case was initiated under the "extremist" Article 282 of the Criminal Code.