At trial of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog prosecutor asks six years in prison for four defendants

The state prosecutor asked to sentence four out of 16 Jehovah's Witnesses, tried in the city of Taganrog, Rostov Region, to six years in a general-regime colony, said Victor Zhenkov, an advocate.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in September 2009 the Rostov Regional Court found the Taganrog-based community of Jehovah's Witnesses to be an extremist one and banned its activities. 16 Jehovah's Witnesses were accused of extremism, since, according to investigators, continued running the community after its ban.

Today, the state prosecutor spoke at the debates and asked for six years of imprisonment for each of the four defendants, who were considered by the prosecution to be the "organizers of a criminal community." The prosecutor motivated his offer by the fact that they were also charged under Article 150 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (involving a minor in commission of a crime), said Zhenkov.

According to the press release of the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, received today by the "Caucasian Knot", prosecutors failed to formulate the essence of the presented charges.

"The prosecution has no evidence of any socially dangerous or threatening activity," says the press release.