The case of a Jehovah's Witness from the Pskov region was returned to the investigator due to a number of shortcomings

In the city of Porkhov, Pskov Region, the materials of the criminal case of Jehovah's Witness Alexei Khabarov were returned to the investigator due to a number of violations. This was reported on the website of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

The prosecutor returned the criminal case materials with the indictment to the investigator to eliminate the violations. It is noted that the investigator did not carry out the necessary investigative actions and did not identify the citizens indicated as witnesses.

The case against believers in the Pskov region was opened in the spring of 2019. On April 3, 2019, searches were conducted in the homes of two Jehovah's Witnesses, Sergei Komissarov and Alexei Khabarov, and they were given a written undertaking not to leave.

In February 2020, Khabarov became accused under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). The believer refused to testify, and also refused the answers that were attributed to him in one of the interrogation reports from the investigator. The investigator announced his intention to separate the Khabarov case into a separate proceeding.

• Previously, Khabarov was charged with organizing this activity (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code); he was in the status of a suspect. But linguistic religious and psychological examination showed that Khabarov is not the organizer of the activities of an extremist organization.

• In April 2017, the Supreme Court recognized the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as an extremist organization and banned its activities throughout the country. In August of the same year, all communities of Jehovah's Witnesses were added to the list of prohibited ones. After this, a stream of criminal cases against representatives of the confession began.