The City of Komsomolsk-on-Amur Has Joined the Religious Persecution: Search in the Family of Believers, Detention and Interrogation

On May 22, 2020 the apartment of 46-year-old Dmitriy Bryankin, who lives there with his wife and daughters, was searched. The head of the family was taken away for interrogation. Two more families of believers are not in touch. Details are being clarified.

The religious persecution in Russia was a direct consequence of a miscarriage of justice—the decision of the Supreme Court to liquidate and ban all 396 Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in Russia. Driven by unknown motives, law enforcement officers issue a joint confession of law-abiding citizens for participation in the activities of an extremist organization. Law scholars and human rights defenders both inside and outside Russia unanimously condemn what is happening with Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, including the Human Rights Commissioner in Russia, the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation himself, prominent public figures in Russia, as well as the foreign policy service of the European Union, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Jehovah's Witnesses have nothing to do with extremism and insist on their complete innocence. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that decisions by Russian courts to dismantle and ban Jehovah's Witnesses organizations "do not evaluate the Jehovah's Witnesses' doctrine, nor do they limit or prohibit the practice of the above doctrine on an individual basis.”