A supporter of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious movement, Vyacheslav Baranos, has told the Russian TV channel Dozhd that people in civilian clothes tortured him in the office building of the Investigative Committee in Surgut.
“They tied my hands and feet with scotch tape, put my foreheads on a wet rag, and put a blue transparent plastic bag on my head. Two or three people sat on me, pressing on me very painfully from time to time. Then, holding me, they tightened the bag. When I began to choke, they weakened it and began to yell that I shout confess to the crime. When they started choking me, when I was choking, they closed my mouth with a hand and inserted a stun gun, probably between the buttocks. They turned it on. I did not scream, I roared,” said Baranos.
The man also said that people from the Investigative Committee poured water on his jeans in the crotch area, and used a stun gun. He noted that this happened repeatedly. “At the end, they beat me with something on the gastrocnemius muscle. I later turned to the first-aid station, I had hematomas on both legs,” said the believer.
The torture in the building of the Investigative Committee in Surgut was reported by Jehovah’s Witnesses on February 19 on their website.
The press service of the IC denied this information.
Vyacheslav Baranos and 6 more believers were detained on February 15.
Since 2017, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been considered an extremist organization in Russia.
