Illustrative photo
New searches of believers in the Khabarovsk Territory. After 2 days behind bars, a 49-year-old Jehovah's Witness was placed under house arrest
Khabarovsk TerritoryOn June 5, 2021, searches were carried out in the working village of Solnechny (Khabarovsk Territory). A criminal case has been initiated. Boris Yagovitov, 49, was detained and placed in a temporary detention facility. On June 7, Pavel Nesterov, a judge of the Solnechny District Court of the Khabarovsk Territory, chose a measure of restraint for him in the form of house arrest until August 4, 2021.
A car drove up to Boris and his wife Natalia during a walk in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, from which two got out and invited the couple to get into the car. When Boris asked about the reason for the detention, he received the answer: "This is due to your activities." Then the believers were taken to their place of residence in the village of Solnechny, which is 40 kilometers from Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
Late in the evening, at about 10 p.m., their apartment was searched, and then the spouses were interrogated. Boris was placed in a temporary detention facility, and Natalia was released home at 2:30 a.m. The search and interrogation were conducted by the investigator for especially important cases Alexander Meshalkin.
At 9:30 p.m. on the same day, security forces from Amursk and Khabarovsk came to another local believer. During the search, they seized electronic devices and personal records of her late husband. Then the woman was taken for interrogation to the investigative department for the Khabarovsk Territory and the city of Amursk in the village of Solnechny, where she was interrogated. The believer was taken home at 4:30 in the morning.
Boris Yagovitov became the 19th Jehovah's Witness persecuted for his faith in the Khabarovsk Territory. Another resident of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Nikolay Aliyev, was recently given a 4.5-year suspended sentence for reading the Bible.