Trial Begins in Surgut in the Case Against 19 Jehovah's Witnesses, Six of Whom Were Tortured During Interrogation

On October 11, 2021, the criminal case against 19 Jehovah's Witnesses from Surgut and one person mistakenly accepted by the investigation as a Jehovah's Witness was transferred to the Surgut City Court. The case has been assigned to judge Dmitriy Lupin.

There were 19 believers in the dock, aged 22 to 71. Among them is one woman.

In 2019, Surgut became the first city in modern Russia where the Witnesses were brutally tortured by the security forces. During interrogation in the Investigative Committee, seven detained men (six of them are now in the status of defendants) were tortured with electric current, beaten and strangled until they lost consciousness, forcing them to incriminate themselves and their loved ones. From the stories of the victims, it follows that among the torturers there was a special group of security officials specially assigned to the region, who have the practice of beating testimonies from detainees.

Victims of torture filed complaints with the European Court of Human Rights, reported the incident to the Human Rights Ombudsman for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, employees of the offices of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, as well as Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Council under the President of Russia for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC). The latter said: : "We cannot allow such an evil to exist on our land."

Nevertheless, until now none of the officers involved in the torture in Surgut has been brought to justice. Impunity led to the subsequent torture of Jehovah's Witnesses by the security forces in other regions. The last of the recorded cases occurred in Irkutsk during searches of believers.