Jehovah's Witnesses report assaults at their prayer houses in Volgodonsk and Sochi

Two assaults at prayer houses where representatives of religious community Jehovah's Witnesses hold their meetings were registered in the South of Russia, i.e. Sochi and Volgodonsk, Grigory Martynov, representative of Management Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation, informed the "Caucasian Knot" today. There were no victims.

At 22:25, June, 10, an assault at the "Hall of Kingdom" (a name the believers call their prayer houses) was committed in Sholokhov street, house No 22, of Volgodonsk (Rostov region).

"Four young people: two young men or teenagers and two girls, pelted the facade of the building with big stones and wrote "Orthodoxy!!!" on the fence adding inscriptions in abusive language", Grigory Martynov said referring to eyewitnesses.

Part of the facade brick was split off and one of the roller blinds was damaged by the stone. By 1:00 the personnel of police unit No 2 of the Department of Interior Affairs of Volgodonsk in Rostov region arrived at the scene of the accident, drew up a protocol and collected the stones where the attackers' fingerprints might be found.

This building has been used since 2005 by five local communities of Jehovah's Witnesses with about 500 believers. Earlier, the building also underwent acts of hooliganism: at night of October, 4, 2011, unidentified persons pelted it with stones.

The object of the assault of June, 12, was the "Hall of Kingdom" of Jehovah's Witnesses located in Poselkovaya street of Sochi (Krasnodar region). The attackers made inscriptions "Sect" with paint on its door and windows.

Earlier, this prayer house where over 600 people gather for worship also became an object of assault. On January, 10, 2010, a group of 5 or 6 unknown people pelted the building with stones. The attackers threatened to beat up the guards using abusive language, web-site of Jehovah's Witnesses of the Russian Federation reported. A militia flying squad arrived and detained and interrogated two attackers in the militia department of the Central district of Sochi. Jehovah's Witnesses submitted a statement on the incident to the Chief of local Department of Interior Affairs but their motion of starting criminal proceeding was dismissed.

According to Martynov, propaganda aimed against Jehovah's Witnesses "some people have naked faith in" promotes the assaults. There have been no comments from law enforcement bodies on new incidents.

The experts' opinions of the basis of Jehovah's Witnesses' activities in Russia differ greatly. Some of them consider that members of the community do not observe the Russian law, others are sure that the organization is being prosecuted for ideological and political reasons and an image of enemy is artificially created in its person.