23:18, 1 August 2024

Believers from Karachay-Cherkessia involved in criminal case as suspects

Two women from the Zelenchuksky District are suspected of participating in an extremist organization: they were organizing meetings and services of Jehovah’s Witnesses*, investigators stated.

According to the investigators’ version, during the period from 2019 to 2023, being aware that the religious organization “Administrative Centre of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” and the local religious organizations in its structure, including the “Local Religious Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses* of Nevinnomyssk”, had been liquidated by the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) of the Russian Federation, the suspects “voluntarily took part in the mentioned banned organization.” They “were organizing meetings and services, during which they were conducting sermons and classes on the study of the basics of illegal religious activities and books.”

The article the suspects are charged with provides for punishment from two to six years of imprisonment.

In January, Yaroslav Sivulsky, the spokesperson for the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses*, claimed that enormous responsibility for the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses* in Russia lied with those who were spreading false information about Jehovah’s Witnesses*, based on fabrications or deliberate lies.

*396 Russian organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses are recognized as extremist, and their activities in Russia are banned by court's decision.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 1, 2024 at 09:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot