In Dagestan, court arrests four Jehovah's Witnesses*

In Makhachkala, the Soviet District Court took into custody for two months four Jehovah's Witnesses*, who were detained after searches in their apartments.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 1, searches were carried out in Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Kizlyar, and Derbent. After that, Jehovah's Witnesses* Arsen Abdullaev, Maria Karpova, Anton Dergalev, and Marat Abdulgalimov were detained.

A lot of relatives and friends of the suspects came to the today's hearing of the Soviet District Court of Makhachkala, and there were not enough seats at the courtroom, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reported from the court.

Investigator Ivan Emelyanov reported to the court that the criminal case was instituted on May 27. "No later than in December 2017, Abdullaev, Abdulgalimov, Dergalev, and Karpova created a unit which pursued the goals and objectives of the extremist organization 'Jehovah's Witnesses'. The suspects were organizers and ideological inspirers. Starting from December 2017 and until their detention, they were carrying out open anti-Russian and anti-constitutional activities in the form of the propaganda work among the population," stated the investigator.

Judge Dalgat Gadjiev pronounced the decision to arrest all four suspects for two months, until July 27.

*The organization is recognized as extremist, and its activity is banned in Russia by the court's decision.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 3, 2019 at 05:40 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.