In the Altai Republic, the investigation into the case against Jehovah's Witnesses has been completed

The Investigative Committee for the Altai Republic has completed an investigation into the 45-year-old Jehovah's Witness. About this on the department's website.

reported Presumably, we are talking about Alexander Kalistratov from Gorno-Altaisk. In January, his home and four other believers were searched. against Kalistratov At the same time, a criminal case was opened under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, from May 2017 to January 2022, the suspect “deliberately and illegally committed organizational actions” in order to continue the organization’s activities. He allegedly recruited new members, convened meetings, and discussed them through video calls for the sake of secrecy. In addition, the man supervised the meetings themselves, preaching the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses at them, the investigation believes.

The believer did not admit guilt. His case was sent to the prosecutor for approval of the indictment.

"European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses" that Kalistratov has already faced religious discrimination and has previously had criminal cases brought against him in connection with his religion.

noted In 2000, a man tried to exercise the right to alternative civil service, justifying his decision on religious beliefs, but a criminal case was opened against him and he was placed in a pre-trial detention center. In the same year, the court acquitted Kalistratov, not seeing any crime in his actions.

In 2010, Kalistratov once again found himself in court on charges of extremism. His case was considered twice, a guilty verdict was handed down, but in the end the Supreme Court of the Republic found the man not guilty.

• In 2017, the Supreme Court liquidated the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia. All organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were included in the list of prohibited organizations, after which criminal cases began against believers. Rosfinmonitoring lists hundreds of Russian followers of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremists and terrorists. Most of the people on the list are believers between 40 and 60 years old. admitted introduced flow the - June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights banning the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and the subsequent persecution of believers is illegal. From the point of view of the ECHR, the decision to liquidate the organization and criminal cases against Jehovah’s Witnesses is based on an overly broad definition of “extremism”, which in Russian legislation “can be applied to absolutely peaceful forms of expression.” admitted