In St. Petersburg, the court extended the arrest period for the leaders of the Church of Scientology

The Nevsky District Court extended the arrest of Scientologists Ivan Matsitsky, Constance Esaulkova and Galina Shurinova.

On December 4, 2017, the Nevsky District Court extended the arrest of Scientologists Ivan Matsitsky, Constance Esaulkova and Galina Shurinova.

Matsitsky will remain in custody until March 19, 2017, Esaulkova and Shurinova under house arrest until March 19, 2018.

Solution on the arrest of Scientologists was issued by the Nevsky District Court of St. early June 2017. The first in the Scientology case was arrested for two months head of the internal security service 38-year-old Anastasia Terentyeva. Behind her - "spiritual leader" Ivan Matsitsky, executive director organization Galina Shurinova, chief accountant Sahib Aliyev. Constance Esaulkova, Deputy Terentyeva, was sent under house arrest. under house arrest , but the latter was again sent to a pre-trial detention center a month later. transferred Later , Shurinova, Terentyeva and Aliev were also

Arrests and searches took place within the framework of a criminal case under Art. 171 (illegal business), Art. 282 (inciting hatred) and Art. 282.1 (organization of an extremist communities) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to investigators, the Church of Scientology engaged in shadow entrepreneurship, selling educational programs that are not taxed.

As a reminder, we tend to consider it illegal to prosecute Scientologists for extremism. The assertion of one's own exclusiveness is characteristic of any religion, and the persecution of Scientologists and the banning of their literature on this basis are unreasonable. It seems doubtful to us that a part of the adherents of Scientologists who are subjected to psychological pressure have been singled out by the investigation into a social group protected by anti-extremist legislation.

Sources

• Inc. inf.