Ukrainian Evangelical Pastor Kidnapped by Militants; Released 4 Days Later
The Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith reported that Pastor Taras Sen was taken hostage on 27 September in the city of Sverdlovsk in the Luhansk oblast by armed militants and released on 1 October 2015.
As reported by Human Rights Without Frontiers: "Pastor Taras and his colleagues of the Church are known to have been constantly providing food and other aid to the needy since the military conflict broke out." "The Church reports that Taras Sen was taken hostage on Sunday 27 September in the city of Sverdlovsk in the Luhansk oblast by armed militants and released on 1 October. It should be noted that on 29-30 September 2015 a conference of the OSCE/ODIHR was held in Warsaw on problems of crimes based on hatred, discrimination, and persecution of Christians and other believers, where the incident involving Pastor Taras Sen was mentioned." Pastor Sen was released a day after the conference ended. According to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, "in both Russian-occupied Crimea and the areas of Donbas under Kremlin-backed militant control, there is widespread persecution and / or discrimination of all religious groups except for believers linked to the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. A recent study entitled ‘When God Becomes The Weapon’ put together evidence of religious persecution with the authors’ stated aim being to ensure that the perpetrators of human rights abuses answer for their deeds and that their victims can seek legal redress in domestic or international courts. The report identifies systematic and widespread religious persecution, and also points out that religion is one of the key motivating factors and justification cited for criminal activities by unlawful paramilitary groups within the so-called ‘Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics’." Sources: Human Rights Without Frontiers Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group