The court extended the arrest of six Jehovah's Witnesses from the Rostov region

The Leninsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don extended the arrest of five Jehovah's Witnesses on October 5. This was reported by the Caucasian Knot publication. The next day, the detention of another believer, Vladimir Popov, was extended .

After searches on August 8 in the houses of believers, security forces detained accountant Alexey Gorely from Rostov-on-Don, three residents of the city of Gukovo in the Rostov region: driller Evgeny Razumov, builder Nikita Moiseev and physical education teacher Oleg Shidlovsky. Then they were arrested on suspicion of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). Later, Vladimir Popov was detained and arrested, and then Alexey Dyadkin, a native of Gukovo, after he himself came for questioning from Kursk.

On October 5, the court extended the arrest of Moiseev, Razumov, Dyadkin, Gorely and Shidlovsky for two months, until December 7. According to the investigation, which petitioned to extend the preventive measure, the believers committed a serious crime against the foundations of the constitutional order and investigators need time to conduct examinations, and that the accused could hide, put pressure on witnesses or otherwise obstruct the investigation.

Moiseev’s lawyer, Roman Kakasyev, pointed out that the only evidence the investigation has is the protocol of the interrogation of the classified witness “Tolstoy,” whose identity information has been kept secret. A classified witness can say whatever he wants, he is exempt from criminal liability for giving false testimony,” Caucasian Knot reports. Razumov's lawyer Andrei Kopylov said that his client is being held in a cell where, besides him, there are also 18 people, of whom only two are non-smokers.

October 16 . On October 15, the Rostov Regional Court upheld the decision to extend the arrest of six Jehovah's Witnesses, Moiseev, Razumov, Dyadkin, Gorely, Popov and Shidlovsky, Caucasian Knot reports .

The defense appealed the decision of the Leninsky District Court, asking that the measure of restraint for believers be changed to house arrest or a ban on certain actions. But the Rostov Regional Court left the decision of the first instance unchanged.

Information has been added about the extension of the preventive measure for the sixth believer, and therefore the title has been changed.

• In the Rostov region on August 8, at least 14 searches took place in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses. In particular, Alexey Gorely, according to his wife Inna, was searched from 6:45 to 21:10. The investigator seized a laptop, two phones, hard drives, flash cards and notepads with recordings of meetings.
• 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.
• The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Rostov region began on May 19, 2019 with searches in 15 houses of Rostov residents. Then Vilen and Arsen Avanesov and Alexander Parkov were detained. Theyhave been under arrest for more than a year; they are also accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), and Arsen Avanesov is additionally accused of collecting funds to finance its activities (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code).