Two followers of Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested in Sochi

On October 11, the Central District Court of Sochi sent local residents Nikolai Kuzichkin and Vyacheslav Popov, suspected of organizing the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses, to pretrial detention. This was reported on the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

Popov and Kuzichkin, who is 68 years old, are charged with organizing the activities of an organization recognized as extremist in Russia (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The believers were placed in custody until November 24.

It is reported that on October 10, mass searches were carried out among followers of Jehovah's Witnesses in Sochi and nearby settlements. Investigative actions took place at 19 addresses. In the end, only two people were detained. “In some cases, the capture groups cordoned off the houses of believers and broke the locks. During the searches, electronic devices and books about the Bible were confiscated,” they write on the Jehovah’s Witnesses website.

On October 22, the Krasnodar Regional Court upheld the arrest of Nikolai Kuzichkin and Vyacheslav Popov until November 24, the Caucasian Knot reports .

• On April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” as an extremist organization, liquidated it and banned its activities in Russia. In August, all Jehovah's Witnesses organizations were added to the list of prohibited organizations. After this, a stream of criminal cases against representatives of the confession began.
• In February 2019, the court handed down its first sentence with real imprisonment - Danish citizen Dennis Christensen was sentenced to six years in prison, his complaint was accepted for consideration by the ECHR.
• In mid-February, mass searches took place in the homes of followers of Jehovah's Witnesses in Surgut. At least seven of them reported beatings, humiliation and electric shocks. OVD-Info published the story of the victims' lawyer.