Charges against 16 Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog are absurd and fuzzy, experts say

The case of 16 Jehovah's Witnesses, who are tried in Taganrog since May 30, shows the absurdity of the Russian anti-extremism legislation, experts in human rights said at a press conference in Moscow.

Let us remind you that the investigators dealing with the case believe that the defendants had ignored the decision of the Rostov Regional Court, which in September 2009 recognized the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog as extremist and banned its activities in Rostov-on-Don and in the Neklinovsky and Matveev-Kurgan Districts of the Rostov Region. Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog continued their activities prohibited by the court and studied the literature put on the list of extremist materials, the prosecution asserts.

The defendants refuse to plead guilty. Their defence indicates the inconsistency of the allegations and states the absence of crime attributes in the case.

Preliminary hearings on the case of 16 Jehovah's Witnesses, accused of extremism, were held on May 13 and 20 and then postponed till June 26.

As reported on June 3 at a press conference at the Independent Press Centre in Moscow by Victor Zhenkov, the believers' advocate, the Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog had appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia with complaints against the decision of the Rostov Regional Court. However, their complaints were left untreated with the motivation that the court decision applied only to the legal entity, not to individuals.

So far, the "Caucasian Knot" has no comments of the prosecution regarding the statements of the advocate and other persons announced at the press conference.