JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ARRESTED AFTER SEARCH IN KUBAN
Kavkazskii Uzel, 16 February 2022
Investigators gave an account of the results of searches. A 41-year-old resident of Kuban was arrested in a case regarding arranging meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses. In all, there are four suspects in the case, from whom religious literature was seized.
As Kavkazskii Uzel has written, on 15 February it became known that in the villages of Vysekli and Berezanskaya, and also in Novorossiisk, searches were conducted in the homes of more than 30 Jehovah's Witnesses, from whom electronic equipment and personal notes were confiscated. A criminal case has been opened against at least three believers, one of whom, 41-year-old Vitaly Ushakov, was placed in a holding cell in Korenovsk, the administrators of a website devoted to the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia reported.
The suspects in a case regarding the arranging of the activity of an extremist organization were four members of a local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in the village of Vyselki, the press service of the department of the S.K.R. for Krasnodar territory reported.
"A court selected a measure of restriction in the form of detention in custody for the 41-year-old subject who took the most active part in the activity of the forbidden association," a report posted on the website of the bureau says.
The suspects are local residents aged from 39 to 48 years; the case is based on part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the R.F. It was opened in the Korenovsky district investigation department based on materials of the territorial departments of the F.S.B. and M.V.D.
"According to the account of the investigation, in the period from July 2020 to July 2021, the suspects, who were actual leaders of the aforesaid forbidden association, arranged meetings in various residential and nonresidential premises on the territory of the district, as well as religious events for purposes of promoting the activity of the forbidden association and recruitment of new members," the publication says.
More than 30 searches were conducted in homes of the suspects and in locations where meetings of believers were held, the investigators confirmed. "Literature of the religious teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses of interest to the investigation was confiscated, including draft notes and means of communication," the report noted.
Part 1 of article 282.2 of the CC RF provides for up to ten years of imprisonment.
Kavkazskii Uzel has also written about other cases of the prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Kuban. Thus, in January a Pavlovsky district court found the believer Maksim Beltikov guilty of participating in the activity of an extremist organization and sentenced him to two years in a prison colony of medium security. In December 2021 an Abinsk district court sentenced the Jehovah's Witness Alexander Nikolaev to 2.5 years in a penal colony on the same charge. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 February 2022)
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