Translated material
Primorye changed the measure of restraint for Jehovah's Witnesses
On February 6, the Lesozavodsky City Court of the Primorsky Territory changed the measure of restraint for Jehovah's Witness Evgeny Grinenko from house arrest to a ban on certain actions. This was reported on the website of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.
The message does not say what specific actions are prohibited. Grinenko is charged with organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Before the trial, he spent seven months under house arrest, and before that another 58 days in a pre-trial detention center, after which his condition worsened and the court changed the measure of restraint.
Yevgeny Grinenko was detained in May 2020 after massive searches of Jehovah's Witnesses in Primorye. Before the criminal case was initiated, 49-year-old Grinenko lived in Lesozavodsk with his elderly parents.
In the Primorsky Territory, at least 11 criminal cases have been initiated against 19 local Jehovah's Witnesses. Cases were initiated in Vladivostok, Luchegorsk, Partizansk, Razdolny, Spassk-Dalniy and Ussuriysk. Community members are accused of involvement in an extremist organization (Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).
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.
- According to Federal Law No. 114-FZ “On Combating Extremist Activities”, extremism is a violent change in the constitutional order, violation of the territorial integrity of the state, justification of terrorism, propaganda of social inequality depending on various characteristics and discrimination, committing hate crimes, propaganda of Nazism, as well as calls for such activities and their preparation.