Translated material
In Ivanovo, Jehovah's Witnesses were searched. A criminal case was opened against two believers
On November 9, three Jehovah's Witnesses were searched in Ivanovo, and a criminal case was opened against two believers. The press service of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses reported this to OVD-Info.
The security forces came with searches at about six o'clock in the morning. The 60-year-old believer said he was thrown to the floor and handcuffed, but was later removed. His personal records, phone, memory card and money received from the sale of property were confiscated.
After the search, all believers were interrogated. The press service of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses clarifies that the case was opened under an extremist article. With a high degree of probability, we are talking about the article on the activities of an extremist organization (Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), under which cases are most often brought against Jehovah’s Witnesses.
- 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.”