Jehovah's Witness* from Novocherkassk suspected of extremism

Law enforcers together with an IT expert specialist inspected a computer and mobile phones in the home of a Jehovah's Witness* from Novocherkassk, suspecting him of extremism.

Law enforcers were looking for prohibited items and extremist literature, the human rights project "OVD-Info"** has informed. However, nothing prohibited was found there.

On the same day, another group of law enforcers came to his work. They explained their actions by the fact that the believer's actions may contain signs of organizing an extremist community. This is reported by the website that collects information on the criminal cases initiated against Russian Jehovah's Witnesses*.

The "Caucasian Knot" has also reported that Arsen Avanesov, a Jehovah's Witness* from the Rostov Region was released from a penal colony, where he was serving his term under an extremism case. Alexander Parkov, Vilen and Arsen Avanesov were detained on May 22, 2019, and accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization. In their final statement, the defendants said that they had never been criminals.

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

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.