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A Series of Searches of Believers in Penza Region. A Criminal Case Initiated Under the "Extremist" Article
Penza RegionIn the morning of October 11, 2020 armed forces invaded 4 apartments in Nikolsk city located approximately 100 km from Penza. Personal belongings were taken from believers. Among those searched was Yuri Kim, 60, who is suspected of extremism.
Update. On October 30, Yuriy Kim was summoned to the Pervomaisky District Court of Penza, 120 kilometers from Nikolsk, to familiarize himself with the search materials. After returning, in the evening, the believer became ill, he was paralyzed and he lost consciousness. The ambulance doctors who arrived at the scene were unable to provide assistance and called the resuscitation team from Penza. Doctors did not have time to save Yuri. On November 14, he and his wife would celebrate the 19th anniversary of the creation of the family.
Thus, a minibus came to the house of a young married couple, law enforcers in masks and with automatic rifles came out. They began knocking out the door to the couple's dwelling, but the head of the family opened it himself. Investigator for especially important cases of Investigatory directorate of Investigatory committee of Russia for Penza region, senior lieutenant Igor Saulin presented to believers a search order issued on October 7 by Pervomaiskiy district court of Penza based on initiated criminal case. Electronic equipment, phones, flash-drives, watches, letters and bank cards were taken from the spouses. The couple were taken away for interrogation that lasted about 2.5 hours. After that the believers were released.
One of the searches was also carried out in the house of Yuriy Kim, against whom a criminal case was initiated under part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - organization of the activities of the banned organization. A a recognizance not to leave was taken from Yuriy Kim. Other details are specified.
Among those searched on the basis of unfounded suspicions of extremism were a man with a disability and his wife.
"Someone was knocking on the door and wanted to break it down. I couldn't open it right away as my leg was amputated and some parts of my fingers were missing. It was hard for me to orient myself, "says the believer about the events he experienced. According to his wife, the security forces tried to enter the apartment not only through the door: "A man in camouflage began to knock on the window frame with a mount, preparing to knock it out. I opened the door. 8 people entered the house."
"I asked what they were looking for. The investigator replied: "Everything related to religion and Jehovah," continues the head of the family.
"They took personal photos, four Bibles (including in the Synodal Translation, in the Translation of Archimandrite Macarius and the Modern Translation), as well as an Evangelical dictionary, personal notes on a biblical theme, postcards, a foreign passport, even my personal poems about Jehovah," says the believer. According to the woman, the security forces were also interested in why she and her husband "do not believe like everyone else."
Her husband says: "I have hypertension and heart problems. Two years ago he was hospitalized with a suspected stroke. During the search, the pressure jumped sharply. By evening, I felt bad again. The pressure does not subside, in the morning the nose bleeds, the heart began to hurt again.
Less than a month before the searches in Nikolsk, on September 16 the court made a decision on the case of 6 believers from Penza and sentenced them to suspended sentence based on similar accusations of extremism only for the fact that they read the Bible together with believers. Sentences for religious practices of Jehovah's Witnesses are handed down in Russia despite the fact that their faith is not prohibited in the country.
