Week-ending 10 January 2020
Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch: “For Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, practicing their faith means risking their freedom. There is nothing remotely justifiable about this. It’s time for President Putin to ensure that law enforcement stop this harmful persecution.”
Source:
Russia: Escalating Persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses Arrests, Prison, Harassment for Peaceful Religious Practice (Moscow) Law enforcement authorities across Russia have dramatically escalated the nationwide persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the past 12 months, Human Rights Watch said today. One year after President Vladimir Putin said that the crackdown against them should be “looked into,” the numbers of house raids and people under criminal investigation have more than doubled, and 32 Jehovah’s Witnesses worshipers are behind bars for peacefully practicing their faith. Human Rights Watch, 9 January 2020
Featured photo: Nadezhda German, who spoke to Human Rights Watch about the imprisonment of her husband, and their treatment by officials, because they are Jehovah Witnesses. © 2019 Матвей Фляжников/Matvei Flyazhnikov, Novaya Gazeta
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