Case of Jehovah's Witnesses from Orenburg brought to court

In Orenburg, the case of six Jehovah's Witnesses, who are accused of involvement in an extremist organization, was brought to court.

On December 11, 2019, the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Orenburg Region reported that the case of six Jehovah's Witnesses accused of chch. 1 and 2 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of extremist activity or participation in it) and Part 1 of Art. 282.3 of the Criminal Code (financing of extremist activities).

Earlier, Jehovah's Witnesses reported that Sergei Logunov, who has been under house arrest since May 2018, is charged under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Vladimir Kochnev, who spent 78 days in a pre-trial detention center, 70 - under house arrest and being under a ban on certain actions, as well as Nikolai Zhugin, Aleksey Matveev and Pavel Lekontsev, who gave a written undertaking not to leave, were charged under part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Vladislav Kolbanov, who spent 146 days under house arrest and remains under a ban on certain actions, is charged under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code and Part 1 of Art. 282.3 of the Criminal Code. Earlier it was also reported about the seventh defendant in this case - Alexander Suvorov.

According to investigators, in the period from April 2017 to May 2018, the defendants, being followers of the religious teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses and representatives of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, "with the aim of disseminating and promoting this religious teaching, performing religious ceremonies, divine services, and other religious rites , teaching religion and religious education of followers of the religious teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, organized, observing secrecy measures, the activities of the banned religious association of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Orenburg, where they held collective religious services and religious training classes .

Searches at the Orenburg Jehovah's Witnesses took place on May 16, 2018. Olga Sandu and Fail Shangareev, who were then detained, left Russia. In addition, the defendants in the case were a resident of Sol-Iletsk Anatoly Vichkitov, Boris Andreev from the village. Perevolotsky and a resident of Buzuluk, whose name was not disclosed, but nothing was reported about the further investigation of their cases.

The decision to recognize the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 of their local organizations as extremist was made in April 2017 by the Supreme Court of Russia. 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

• Members of the extremist organization "Jehovah's Witnesses" to appear before the court in the Orenburg region // Website of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Orenburg region. December 11, 2019