House arrest extended for Jehovah's Witnesses in Dagestan

On December 25, the Supreme Court of Dagestan extended the house arrest of four Jehovah's Witnesses accused of “extremist” articles for a month. The Caucasian Knot reports this.

The preventive measure was extended for Arsen Abdullaev, Maria Karpova, Anton Dergalev and Marat Abdulgalimov. Within ten days, the prosecutor's office must approve the indictment and transfer the case materials to the court for trial.

• Four Jehovah's Witnesses from Makhachkala - Arsen Abdullaev, Maria Karpova, Anton Dergalev and Marat Abdulgalimov - have been in custody since June 2019, and their arrest was extended several times. Believers were detained after mass searches in 13 houses of Jehovah's Witnesses in Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Kizlyar and Derbent on June 1, 2019.

• Since May 2020, four defendants in the case have been under house arrest; in November they were allowed to use the Internet. They are accused under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), involvement in such activities (Part 1.1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) and financing such an organization (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code).

• In October, the Supreme Court of Dagestan declared illegal the decision of the district court to deny compensation to one of the four believers, Arsen Abdullaev. Earlier, the cassation court declared the arrest of Abdullaev and three other Jehovah's Witnesses from Makhachkala illegal. The believer was in custody from September to November 2019. The defense indicated that during this period Abdullaev suffered damage in the amount of 286 thousand rubles - the earnings that he lost during the arrest, and legal expenses.

• 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. Later, 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.