The City Court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky returned the case of Jehovah's Witnesses to the prosecutor's office

The City Court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky returned to the prosecutor's office the case of Jehovah's Witness Sergei Ledenev, who is accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported on the website of the religious organization.

On December 12, Ledenev’s case was transferred to the prosecutor’s office, which may indicate serious errors in the indictment, the report says.

Ledenev is charged with holding “collective religious performances and services”, “distributing literature with extremist content”, “planned training in the tenets of the religious association “Jehovah’s Witnesses”, “viewing video materials of a prohibited religious structure”. On December 2, 2018, his place was searched.

• On November 14, 2019, in Kamchatka, a court in the city of Elizovo returned to the prosecutor’s office the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses Vera Zolotova and the spouses Konstantin and Snezhana Bazhenov. They were accused under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) for holding religious services.
• In November, the SOVA Center reported that the case against residents of Vilyuchinsk (Kamchatka) Mikhail and Elena Popov for involvement in the activities of an extremist organization (under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code and under Part 1.1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) was transferred to court.
• 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.
• ​OVD-Info talked about the life of followers of Jehovah's Witnesses under the ban and how they are persecuted.