A Perm court has received a case against five Jehovah's Witnesses

On December 11, it became known that the Industrial District Court of Perm had received a criminal case against five followers of Jehovah's Witnesses: Boris Burylov, Viktor Kuchkov, Igor Turik, Alexander Inozemtsev and Yuri Vaag. This was reported by the SOVA information and analytical center.

Burylov and Kuchkov are accused under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), Turik is in addition charged under the article on financing extremist activities (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code), Vaage is charged only with participation in extremist activities organizations (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).

The indictment alleges that Jehovah's Witnesses "organized and held religious meetings at which they used extremist literature and videos and performed sect rituals," and Turik "provided funds to support (the community's) activities."

According to SOVA, a criminal case against believers was opened in September 2018, but human rights activists learned about it in 2020.

• In October 2020, courts in the Perm region softened the measure of restraint for Jehovah's Witnesses. A believer from Solikamsk, Vladimir Timoshkin, accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), house arrest was replaced with a ban on certain actions. Supporters of the confession Alexander Kostrov, Viktor Bachurin and Artur Netreba were released on their own recognizance. On suspicion of participating in the activities of a religious association recognized as extremist (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), they spent 331 days in a pre-trial detention center.
• 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.