Three Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested in Kursk on charges of participation in an extremist organization

The Leninsky District Court of Kursk arrested until November 11 the followers of Jehovah's Witnesses Andrei Andreev and the Bagratyan spouses, Artem and Alevtina. They are accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by MBKh Media with reference to the representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses Yaroslav Sivulsky

Andreev is charged with organizing the activities of the administrative center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kursk (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), and the Bagratyan spouses are accused of participating in the activities of the center (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). These criminal cases have been combined into one, which is being investigated by the investigative department of the FSB Directorate for the Kursk Region.

• Earlier it was reported about searches in four houses of Jehovah's Witnesses, after which Andreev was detained and the Bagratyans stopped communicating. According to Sivulsky, searches actually took place at 10 addresses; during interrogations, FSB officers threatened religious followers with criminal cases against them and members of their families.
• On October 20, special forces broke into a camp site in Norilsk, where more than 50 Jehovah's Witnesses were located. Their phones and tablets were taken away. Several people were taken away for questioning about the “forbidden faith” and house searches, where Bibles, computers, tablets and phones were seized.
• 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.