Adler resident arrested for posting video on messenger

The Adler District Court has arrested Alexei Svirid, a Ukrainian citizen living in Adler, for 10 days for posting a video in a messenger with a link to a website about the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses* that was recognized as extremist.

The court has arrested Svirid for distributing extremist materials. The protocol against him was drawn up due to his video posted in the messenger with a link to the website of Jehovah's Witnesses*, which in 2015 was included into the list of extremist materials, the human rights project "OVD-Info"** has reported.

Alexei Svirid has repented of his offence and explained that he was careless and sent the information to his girlfriend.

The court took into account his repentance as a mitigating circumstance, but given the fact that Svirid had earlier been brought to administrative responsibility for petty hooliganism; it decided to arrest him for 10 days and confiscate the mobile phone with which the video was posted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has also reported that an activist of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses* has earlier reported that the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov Region are in the lead among the regions of Southern Russia in the number of criminal cases initiated against Jehovah's Witnesses*.

*396 Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.