CITIZEN OF UFA ARRESTED ON CHARGE OF PARTICIPATING IN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' ACTIVITY
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 17 April 2018
In Bashkortostan, a case regarding continuation of the activity of a prohibited organization has been opened.
On 10 April 2018, a follower of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Anatoly Vilitkevich, was arrested in Ufa. On 12 April the Lenin district court of Ufa placed him in custody until 2 June 2018, according to the file of the case on the court's website, on a charge of participating in the activity of an extremist organization (part 2, article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).
Vilitkevich's case is the fourth known to us that has been opened on the basis of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code after the judicial decision adopted in 2017 for the complete ban of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as extremist. Other cases based on this article were opened in Kursk, Kemerovo and Belgorod, although in none of them were the suspects jailed. In addition, in Orel two cases based on article 282.2 of the Criminal Code are being investigated and in one of them the Dane Dennis Christensen has been in a SIZO [investigation cell] for almost a year. Although the decision regarding the liquidation of the Orel congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses was made earlier, in 2016.
We consider that the liquidation of the Jehovah's Witnesses organizations for extremism and the prosecution of members of their congregations and bans on their texts do not have legal bases and are a clear manifestation of religious discrimination. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 April 2018)
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