Three Believers Thrown Into Prison in Surgut After Torture

On February 17, 2019, the Surgut City Court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra chose 42-year-old Yevgeny Fedin, 57-year-old Sergey Loginov and 50-year-old Artur Severinchik as a preventive measure in the form of detention in a pre-trial detention center. A criminal case under the article "organization and participation of an extremist organization" was initiated against 19 local residents, including women.

On February 15, 2019, mass searches were carried out in the homes of believers in the city. This was followed by beatings and torture of at least 7 believers with electric shocks, strangulation and beatings, which took place on the first floor of the building of the Investigative Committee of Russia at 47 Ostrovsky Street in Surgut.

Sergey Loginov, 57, was tortured, among others. On Saturday, February 16, 2019, his friends contacted the hotline of the Investigative Committee of Russia with a request to take action against the investigator of the Surgut department of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra Dmitry Leonidovich Asmolov in connection with incoming reports of torture. After contacting the hotline, Sergey Loginov was immediately released, but after that he was again detained and, under torture, forced to write an explanation that no one had tortured him. After that, he was not allowed to go home.

Law enforcers mistakenly mistake citizens' religion for participation in the activities of an extremist organization, referring to a court decision to liquidate and ban the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in Russia.