In Kursk, the court received the case of four Jehovah's Witnesses

Residents of Kursk are accused of continuing the activities of the banned community.

August 11, 2020 to the Industrial District Court of Kursk received a criminal case under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization or participation in it) in relation to Andrey Andreev, Jehovah's Witnesses, spouses Alevtina and Artem Bagratyan and Andrei Ryshkov, who are accused of continuing activities of the banned community.

All of them were arrested and placed in a pre-trial detention center: Andreev and Bagratyan in October 2019, and Ryshkov in January 2020. On December 17, 2020, the Kursk Regional Court considered an appeal against another extension of his arrest and released Alevtina Bagratyan under house arrest, leaving the rest of the accused in custody.

Jehovah's Witnesses throughout Russia is accused of involvement in the activities of an extremist organization in due to the fact that in April 2017 the Supreme Court decided to recognize Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses extremist. We believe that this is the solution entailed mass persecution of believers under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code, did not have legal grounds, and regard it as a manifestation of religious discrimination.

Sources

• The case of Andreev and others in Kursk. Message from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2020. August 19.