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Moscow court declines to arrest fifth detained leader of Jehovah’s Witnesses center

According to the investigation, a group of individuals has been administering the organization’s religious unit in northeastern Moscow since June 2019

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. Moscow’s Presnensky District Court declined to arrest the fifth one of the detained earlier leaders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses center on Monday, placing him under house arrest, the court told TASS.

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"The Presnensky District Court of the city of Moscow declined to satisfy an investigator’s plea to apply incarceration as a measure of restraint regarding Zakaryan V. P., accused of committing a crime under Article 282.2, Part 1.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the court chose a house arrest until January 23, 2021 as a measure of restraint," the court reported.

Earlier, the court put under house arrest until January 23 Yury Chernyshev, Vitaly Komarov, Ivan Tchaikovsky, Sergei Shatalov. They are charged under Article 282.2, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Organization of the activities of an extremist organization). Vardan Zakaryan is charged under Article 282.2, Part 1.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Recruitment of an individual to join an extremist organization).

The investigation appealed to the court to arrest the four suspects within the framework of a criminal case on organizing in Moscow the activity of the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia and its structural subdivisions, declared an extremist organization by the Russian Supreme Court.

According to the investigation, a group of individuals has been administering the organization’s religious unit in northeastern Moscow since June 2019. Clandestine meetings took place in an apartment, where followers studied religious literature and information from other sources which promote the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was also established that the group’s members recruited residents of Moscow and other Russian regions to join Jehovah's Witnesses, banned by a Russian Supreme Court ruling in April 2017.

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