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The Russian investigative committee accuses the religious group of having organized “conspiratorial meetings”.
Russian authorities announced on Tuesday, November 24, the opening of a criminal investigation against Jehovah’s Witnesses, banned since 2017, for extremist activities, after carrying out raids in more than 20 regions.
The Russian investigation committee, which is responsible for criminal investigations in the country, said in a statement that it has opened a new investigation against Jehovah’s Witnesses for organizing “conspiratorial meetings” in a Moscow apartment since June 2019.
“The adherents studied religious literature and other information … propagating the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” the statement said, adding that members of the religious organization recruited others.
The religious movement of Jehovah’s Witnesses was banned in April 2017 by the Russian Supreme Court and is now considered “extremist” by the Ministry of Justice.
After the ban, several of Jehovah’s Witnesses were sentenced to prison terms.
On Tuesday, authorities also reported raids on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow and more than 20 regions of Russia with support from the Ministry of the Interior, the Secret Service (FSB) and the National Guard (Rosgvardia).
A video accompanying the investigative committee statement shows men dressed in black and hooded breaking into an apartment and then entering an apartment. There are also banknotes of various currencies, including dollars.
The Jehovah’s Witness movement, founded in 1870 in the United States by Charles Russell, claims to be Christian and is considered to be the only one that restores original Christianity.
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