Leaders of the Church of Scientology in St. Petersburg were charged

The FSB charged the leaders of the Church of Scientology in St. Petersburg with organizing an extremist community, inciting hatred and illegal business in the final version, reports . Kommersant

According to the newspaper, the investigation into the case of five defendants has been completed, all of them have been charged. We are talking about the head of the community Ivan Matsitsky, the chief accountant Sahiba Aliyev, the executive director Galina Shurinova, the head of the internal security service Anastasia Terentyeva and the lawyer of the organization Konstanzia Esaulkova. At the same time, lawyer Yevgeny Tonkov, representing the interests of Ivan Matsitsky, said in a conversation with the publication that only three defendants were finally charged.

According to investigators, from 2012 to 2016, Scientologists disguised their entrepreneurial activities as religious, engaging in illegal business and selling various courses and programs of their organization. In this regard, they were charged under paragraphs "a", "b" of part 2 of article 171 of the Criminal Code (illegal business committed by an organized group with the extraction of income on an especially large scale). Later, Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement of hatred or enmity committed by an organized group) and Parts 1 and 2 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code (organization of an extremist community and participation in it) appeared in the case.

All the defendants in the case, except for Esaulkova, were arrested in June 2017 and placed in a pre-trial detention center. Esaulkova was placed under house arrest. The Human Rights Center "Memorial" recognized all the defendants as political prisoners.