Viktor Ursu, a Jehovah’s Witness from Dzhankoy, was released from house arrest.
As Jehovah’s Witnesses inform, the 59-year-old man was detained on July 28, 2023. The house where he lives with his wife and elderly parents, was inspected, and this inspection started at 06:00am. In fact, it was a search, believers think. During some time, the security agency men did not allow Mr. Ursu and his wife to get dressed. The law enforcement officers refused to show identification cards, they were armed. All electronic devices and data carriers were confiscated from the family.
Mr. Ursu was held in the Temporary Holding Facility for two weeks. His wife was not allowed to see her husband and provide him with necessary stuff, food and medicine. On August 7, Mr. Ursu was released, but immediately detained, taken to the “Investigative Committee”, and then transported back to the THF. A criminal case was opened against him under the article on the extremist organization activities management (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 282.2, Part 1).
On August 9, 2023, Mr. Viktor Ursu was placed under house arrest. Now his restraint has been mitigated to a signed acknowledgement of travel restrictions and a proper behavior.
To remind: in 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” an extremist organization and banned its activities in the territory of the Russian Federation, including the Crimean branches of “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. Since 2018, the persecution of “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in criminal cases has begun. In 2020, the first “Jehovah’s Witnesses” believers were convicted and passed custodial sentences.
According to the CHRG, at least 13 Jehovah’s Witnesses believers have been convicted for their faith in Crimea (Artem Herasymov, Oleksandr Dubovenko, Yevhen Zhukov, Oleksandr Lytvyniuk, Volodymyr Maladyka, Volodymyr Sakada, Viktor Stashevskyi, Serhiy Filatov, Ihor Shmidt, Artem Shabliy, Maksym Zinchenko, Serhiy Parfenovych, and Yuriy Heraschenko).
