The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against a Jehovah's Witness from the Kuban village of Vyselki under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), reports the department of the Investigative Committee for the Krasnodar Territory. The SOVA Center drew attention to the release.
According to investigators, from July 2020 to February 2022, the believer participated in meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, rituals and educational events and disseminated their ideology. The release does not specify whether the believer was detained.
The criminal case is being supported by employees of the regional department of the FSB and the local Center “E”.
In February 2022, mass searches of Jehovah's Witnesses took place in the neighboring villages of Vyselki and Berezanskaya, as well as in Novorossiysk. After them, five believers from Vyselki became defendants in a criminal case. He was sent to trial in June 2023. Believers are charged with organizing extremist activities (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). In the fall of 2024, the Investigative Committee completed the investigation of cases against three more Jehovah's Witnesses from Vyselki - they are accused of participation.
- In 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. All organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were included in the list of prohibited ones, after which a stream of criminal cases against believers began. Rosfinmonitoring has added hundreds of Russian followers of Jehovah's Witnesses to the list of “extremists and terrorists.”
- In October 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court clarified the application of “anti-extremist” legislation. The document, in particular, states that actions “consisting solely of the exercise of the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, including through individual or joint professing of religion, performing divine services or other religious rites and ceremonies, do not in themselves constitute a crime , provided for in Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (Participation in the activities of an extremist organization - OVD-Info ).” According to lawyer Tatyana Glushkova, this allows the courts to terminate criminal cases brought against former members of liquidated religious organizations (for example, Jehovah's Witnesses).