Christmas Greetings from the Prosecutor's Office in St. Petersburg: the Detention and Beating of Believers

While conducting probes into the activities of the Protestant church Exodus, law enforcement officers raided the apartments of churchgoers. As a result, five people were taken to the police station, where one of them was beaten.

On the day after all around the world, Catholics, Protestants, and the Orthodox celebrated one of the major religious holidays —the Nativity,—prosecutors decided to investigate the activities of one of the Northern capital's Protestant churches.

On the evening of December 26, law enforcement officials virtually simultaneously descended on the apartments of parishioners of the Exodus Church of St. Petersburg. In three apartments, contact with the authorities proceeded generally civilly and without excesses. However, in one case matters escalated to the use of force. Unhappy with the statements of those subjected to the raid, the local police and prosecutor early on issued a summons to appear and then dispatched the believers to Division 66 of the Krasnogvardeysk Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg. In the end, a group of five underwent further interrogations at the division. Failing to uncover grounds for detention or incriminating evidence on the activities of the religious organization, the prosecutors decided to take the fingerprints of the detainees. During this procedure, the prosecutorial worker taking the fingerprints did not like it that one of the detainees had his hand in his pocket. Seeing in this disrespect for authority, the officer hit the believer in the genital area. The victim noted the badge number of the officer, and now statements will be sent to the Internal Security Directorate of the Police regarding the abuse of authority while conducing police duties.

Not until after 1 AM were the believers allowed to return to their homes.

The Local Religious Organization Church of Evangelical Christians "Exodus" is officially registered and has been operating in St. Petersburg for more than a year. Up to two hundred people attend divine services every Sunday. One of the important activities carried out by the Church is to work with people belonging to risk groups and to help addicts. Several of the current congregation staff overcame this pernicious addiction in the past and are now trying to help those who are still enslaved by narcotics. The Church operates three rehabilitation centers in the Leningrad District. The Church belongs to one of the largest Protestant denominations of the Russian Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith [ROSKHVE] (Pentecostals).

According to Attorney Nikolai Semenov, the Director of the Legal Department of ROSKHVE and Member of the Moscow Chamber of Advocates, the abuse of power by law enforcement agencies is obvious: "In addition to the use of force, this raises question about the grounds for detaining believers and bringing them into the division," said the lawyer, "And also the general thinking behind the prosecutor's decision to investigate an officially registered church is not entirely clear."

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