Rinat Kiramov, 36, is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Russia after being found guilty of practicing his Jehovah's Witnesses religion, banned by the Kremlin as extremist in 2017. Recently, he told his church that he was tortured, including having been waterboarded. Photo courtesy of Jehovah's Witnesses
June 16 (UPI) -- A member of the Jehovah's Witnesses serving a seven-year sentence in a Russian prison for practicing his faith was recently tortured for information about other members of the church, according to the Christian denomination.
Rinat Kiramov, 36, says he's been punched, bound, tased, waterboarded and deprived of food and sleep by fellow prisoners demanding that he give them names of Jehovah's Witnesses in his city of Akhtubinsk, located in southwestern Russia near the border with Kazakhstan, according to the Christian denomination.
"Such egregious acts of violence -- especially against non-violent Christians -- are crimes against humanity," Jarrod Lopes, a spokesperson at the world headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses, told UPI in a statement.
Hundreds of Members of the Christian denomination have been jailed in Russia over practicing their faith since its Supreme Court criminalized all activity by the Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist in April 2017. The believers are being persecuted under the same law that has been used by authorities to target other religious groups as well as critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, notably Alexei Navalny, who died in the Kremlin's penal system in February
Kiramov was arrested Nov. 9, 2021, along with several other Jehovah's Witnesses by Russian security forces who raided their homes in Akhtubinsk and nearby Znamensk. He was charged with organizing Jehovah's Witnesses meetings, including videoconferencing, and was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2023.
His church recently said that Kiramov was tortured over several days in April after being transfer for suspicion of tuberculosis from his penal colony to a medical correctional institution in Tula region.
Kiramov said that the torture began on April 20, two days after his arrival.
Prisoners at the facility demanded that he give them the names of other Jehovah's Witnesses in Akhtubinsk. After he refused, he was punched, knocked to the floor, bound with duct tape and beaten.
"I was shocked with a stun gun on my palms, chest, abdomen and legs. At some point, my feet were forcibly lowered into a bucket of water and I continued to be shocked through the water," he said, according to the church, which was relaying excerpts of a recent discussion between Kiramov and his lawyer.
He then said he was dragged to the shower, where he was laid on his back and a cloth was placed over his face. He was then waterboarded, a type of torture and interrogation technique where the subject experiences the sensation of drowning. It is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
"I could hardly breath. At the same time, one of the prisoners stepped on my stomach. I began to suffocate," Kiramov said. "This lasted about 10 minutes, so that I began to spit out blood along with the water."
On April 23, he said he was beaten again by two prisoners.
He said he was punched in the face and kicked in the chest.
"After I fell, I was punched and kicked multiple times in the body. After that, I was lifted up by my legs and kicked several times in the groin," he said. "They threatened me that I would never be able to have children."
He said that during his four days of torture, he was denied sleep, forced to stand in a corner and permitted only one meal -- lunch -- a day.
"During this entire ordeal, I was threatened with rape," he said.
His wife, Galina, said via the church that she spoke with Kiramov a day after one of his beatings.
"He was barely able to walk," she said. "Every part of his body was hurting. His hands were shaking and his face was smashed."
She said that despite the torture, Kiramov did not give them the information they sought.
According to the church, Kiramov is one of at least 28 of its practitioners who have been tortured in Russia since 2017. It said Russia is known for bribing other prisoners as rewards for retrieving information and forced confessions from fellow inmates.
Russia's bewildering crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses has been widely condemned and the European Union's highest court ruled its ban on the religion unlawful in 2022.
"For reasons passing understanding, Russia continues to shamelessly conduct mass home raids and dole out lengthy prison sentences that upend the lives of peaceful Witness men and women, as well as their innocent children," Lopes said.
"It's well documented in history that the Witnesses outlasted their persecutors in Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet Gulags. Thus, Jehovah's Witnesses are neither surprised nor shaken by Russia's systematic persecution. They fully expect to outlast their persecutors."
According to the church, more than 809 of its practitioners have been criminally charged for practicing their religion since 2017, with 414 having spend time in Prison. At least 135 are currently behind bars.
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