Massive searches of Jehovah's Witnesses took place in Chelyabinsk. At least one believer has been arrested

In Chelyabinsk on September 8, searches were carried out in 13 houses of Jehovah's Witnesses. At least one of the believers, Dmitry Dolzhikov, was taken to Novosibirsk and placed under arrest there - it is unknown in connection with what case and under what article. The portal “Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia” is about this.

reports The searches affected about 34 people, the report notes. Security forces broke into some believers through the windows. Bank cards, foreign passports and electronic devices were confiscated from believers, and in one case, personal savings were also confiscated.

On September 12, the Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for the Chelyabinsk Region initiated a criminal case under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) against an unnamed Jehovah's Witness.

reported Believer Dmitry Dolzhikov is charged with participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), the portal “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia”.

October 1 reports The man was detained in Chelyabinsk on September 8, and two days later he was placed in pre-trial detention center-1 in the Novosibirsk region. “It is still unclear why he was sent 1,500 kilometers from the place of detention,” the believers write.

According to investigators, Dolzhikov participated in religious meetings, conversations with townspeople, and also showed and watched “educational videos.”

• 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. admitted introduced flow the - Five years later, the European Court of Human Rights banned the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and the subsequent persecution of believers as 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