A case has been opened against Izhevsk Jehovah's Witnesses Talipov I.M., Stefanidin A.S. and Knyazev V.A. for organizing the activities of an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the United Press Service of the Courts of Udmurtia.
The Industrial District Court of Izhevsk sent Stefanidin to a pretrial detention facility until August 5, 2024. Talipov and Knyazev were ordered to prohibit certain actions "with the imposition of a number of obligations and prohibitions."
According to investigators, believers held online services, studied religious literature, and made decisions about accepting new members.
- In 2017, the Supreme Court declared the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" an "extremist organization," liquidated it, and banned its activities in Russia. All Jehovah's Witnesses organizations were added to the list of banned organizations, after which a stream of criminal cases against believers began. Rosfinmonitoring added hundreds of Russian followers of Jehovah's Witnesses to the list of "extremists and terrorists." Most of the people on the list are believers between the ages of 40 and 60.
On June 7, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights declared the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses organizations and the subsequent persecution of believers to be unlawful. From the ECHR's point of view, the decision to liquidate the organization and the 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."