Crimea Arrests and Searches Target Jehovah’s Witnesses in Dzhankoi, Crimea, Ukraine

Rights groups and local reports say at least 21 people in occupied Crimea are in various stages of criminal prosecution for their religious beliefs. The source describes them as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Crimea-based committee cited in the report said it had recorded the arrest of four more Jehovah’s Witnesses on May 12. The source’s title places the detentions in Dzhankoi. On April 28, officers searched the home of Alexander Urs, father of Victor Urs, whom the source describes as an 86-year-old defendant in a criminal case. Elderly relatives of those facing charges are among the people the source identifies as affected, a picture of the vulnerable needing protection (Psalm 82:3).

The source states that prosecuting people for their religious beliefs violates Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It also argues that prosecuting people for acts that were not criminal under Ukrainian law violates Article 7 of the same convention. According to the source, international humanitarian law does not permit Russia to apply its own criminal legislation in occupied territory.

In a written reply, the representation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ukraine said that its beliefs contain no extremism. The source does not include any independent assessment of that position.

The source gives the following background. In April 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses an “extremist organization” and banned their activities in Russia, including in occupied Crimea. In June of the same year, occupation authorities banned the registration of all Jehovah’s Witnesses communities. Criminal cases followed. Under Russian legislation, the source says, extremist activity is punishable by criminal liability.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Ukrainian)