ALLEGED
LEADER OF
CELL OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, BANNED IN RUSSIA, BECOMES SUBJECT
OF CRIMINAL CASE
IN PRIMORIE
Interfax-Dalnii
Vostok,
13 May 2020
A
criminal case was
opened in Primorie against a 49-year-old man, who is suspected
of arranging the
activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which are forbidden in
Russia.
"The man
is
suspected of committing the crime under part 1 of article 282.2
of the Criminal
Code of the RF (arranging the activity of an extremist
organization)," the
website of the Investigative Department of the S.K.R. for
Primorie territory
reports.
According
to the
version of the investigation, from March 2018 to May 2020, the
suspect
[identified as Sergei Kobelev—tr.] convened and conducted
meetings "aimed
at continuing the activity of a religious association that has
been ruled by a
court to be extremist."
During a
search in
the place of residence of the suspect, means of communication,
computers,
literature of extremist contents, notebooks, and other items
containing
information about the conduct of illegal activity were
confiscated.
An
informed source
told the Interfax-Dalnii Vostok news agency that the subject in
the case is
suspected of arranging the activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses,
which is banned
in Russia.
In April
2017, on the
basis of a lawsuit of the Russian Ministry of Justice, the
Russian Supreme
Court ruled the Russian Jehovah's Witnesses to be an extremist
organization and
prohibited their activity on the territory of the state. (tr. by
PDS, posted 13
May 2020).
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.