ST. PETERSBURG, April 6 In Petrozavodsk, a person accused of carrying out the activities of a cell of the religious organization “Jehovah's Witnesses”* was taken into custody, reports the Republican Sustainable Investigation Department of the Russian Federation in Telegram channel.
The investigative authorities, based on materials from the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Republic of Karelia, opened a criminal case against a local resident under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of the activities of an extremist organization).
“The investigation established that in the period from January 2021 to February 2024, a 30-year-old man, contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation that entered into legal force recognizing the religious organization Jehovah’s Witnesses Petrozavodsk* as extremist, carried out active organizational actions aimed at to continue prohibited activities,” the message says.
According to the department, the man provided mentoring, recruited new adherents, convened collective meetings using secrecy measures, at which the ideology of the organization was discussed and prohibited literature was studied.
Searches were carried out at the place of residence of the organizer and a number of members of the organization.
“”Together with employees of the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Republic of Karelia, the organizer was detained. During interrogation, he did not admit guilt in the crime committed and refused to testify. At the request of the investigator, the court chose a preventive measure against him in the form of detention,” – the message says.
In April 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation banned the work of the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia”* and its local religious organizations. The organization's property is subject to confiscation. The official ban was followed by the detention of the organizers of local cells in the regions of Russia, who did not stop working after the decision of the RF Armed Forces.
* Extremist organization whose activities are prohibited in Russia
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