A resident of the Ivanovo region was arrested on charges of continuing the activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization

A resident of the city of Furmanov was charged under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code and sent to a pre-trial detention center.

On January 28, 2019, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Ivanov placed 32-year-old Yevgeny Spirin under arrest for two months, accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).

The criminal case was initiated by the FSB in the Ivanovo region on January 21. Spirin, a resident of Furmanov, Ivanovo region, was detained on January 27, and several houses of residents of the region were searched the same day. Spirin was accused of reviving and continuing the activities of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to investigators, he " convened and held meetings of this organization, carried out religious conversations with residents of the Ivanovo region in order to promote it ."

On July 5, 2019, Spirin was placed under house arrest. On December 26, it became known that he was also released from house arrest.

Earlier, in the spring of 2018, in the Ivanovo region, Dmitry Mikhailov, a resident of Shuya, was accused of participating in the activities of an extremist organization (part 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) and financing extremist activities (part 1 of article 282.3 of the Criminal Code). He spent six months in a pre-trial detention center, after which he was released on bail. In the summer of 2018, defendants in cases under Art. Articles 282.2 and 282.3 of the Criminal Code Mikhailov's wife Elena, Svetlana Shishina, Alexei Arkhipov, Svetlana Ryzhkova and Ivan Morugin also became .

The decision to recognize the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local organizations as extremist was made by the Supreme Court of Russia in April 2017. was rejected In July , an appeal against this decision , after which, in August, the organizations were included in the list of extremist ones. We believe that this decision, like the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in general, had no legal basis and was a clear manifestation of religious discrimination.

Sources

• In the Ivanovo region, a believer was sent to jail for 2 months. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. January 29, 2019
• In the Ivanovo Region, a believer was released six months after his arrest. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2019. July 13.
• In Furmanovo, the court released the believer from house arrest despite the insistence of the investigator. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2019. December 26.