22:19, 13 May 2024

Believer from Abinsk arrested on charges of extremism

Handcuffs. Photo by Yelena Sineok, Yuga.ru

A 66-year-old Jehovah’s Witness* from Abinsk has been taken into custody, being accused of participating in an extremist organization, investigators report.

In February 2023, Yaroslav Sivulsky, a spokesperson for the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses, reported that among the regions of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and the Southern Federal District (SFD), the highest number of criminal cases against Jehovah’s Witnesses* were instituted in the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov Region.

According to the investigators’ version, the resident of Abinsk was a member of the religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses* and from 2017 to 2020, he participated in religious meetings, rituals, and educational events via video conferences.

Let us remind you that in April 2017, the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) obtained a decision from the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia to liquidate all organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses* in Russia as extremist. The court assured that the decision to liquidate legal entities would not affect the right of individuals to practice religion, but in practice it resulted in a wave of criminal cases against hundreds of believers.

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

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 13, 2024 at 05:35 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot