Russian GPO orders to check rights violation of two Jehovah's Witnesses in Dagestan

The General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) and the Ombudsman's Office of the Russian Federation demand that the Khasavyurt District Prosecutor's Office and that of Dagestan check the actions of the employees of the local Department of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau), who detained on March 3 in Khasavyurt two members of the religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses who administered their sermon.

On March 3, 2010, two Jehovah's Witnesses - Alexei Komlyakov, 32, years and Ramazan Magomedov, 63, were preaching in the doorway of an apartment house, where they were detained by two agents and brought to the DFSB for Dagestan in the city of Khasavyurt.

Grigory Martynov, a representative of the press service of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the detention lasted for almost 7 hours. In the course of interrogations literature was confiscated from the believers, and Komlyakov's telephone was taken away, but then returned. When he tried to call his relatives, an FSB agent struck him on the face. The interrogators refused to invite an advocate and accompanied their actions by threats, moral pressure and abuse.

On March 20 Alexei Komlyakov sent a complaint against the agents' actions to the Russia's General Public Prosecutor Yuri Chaika, Director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov and Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin.

Alexei writes in his complaint that he was back home after interrogations only at half past one in the morning and later had to change his residence. "After the incident I now experience fear of law enforcers instead of due respect and trust of the bodies where I could have sought protection," Mr Komlyakov's letter runs.

At the Dagestan DFSB, an employee who refused to present himself explained his refusal to name the power agents involved: "We just never name ourselves here."

"Explanations were just taken from them, and they were set free. Only their literature forbidden by the decision of the court was confiscated," the Dagestan DFSB has reported.