Members of an American sect received long prison sentences in Crimea
The Yalta City Court sentenced the organizers and activist of a cell of the banned religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses (a sect headquartered in New York State, USA). Three organizers received from 6,5 years to 6 years 1 month in a general regime colony, an active member of the group received 3 years in prison, another is on the international wanted list, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the Department for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the regional department of the Investigative Committee, in 2015, five residents of Yalta became part of the local cell of the religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite the decision in 2017 to ban the activities of this Christian sect in Russia and liquidate its cells, the Yalta residents decided to go underground and hold meetings in private homes.
The sectarians were exposed in March 2021 by FSB operatives. One of the organizers was detained in the Belgorod region while trying to enter Ukraine. 13 examinations were carried out in the criminal case, including a complex religious forensic examination. About 100 people involved in the activities of the extremist organization were questioned. Collectively, investigators received irrefutable evidence of the organization of the sect and the collection of funds for its existence.
We would like to remind you that in the Zaporozhye region, documents confirming collecting donations for Ukrainian right-wing radical groups until 2022.
Last August in Sevastopol, elders of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect were detained at a safe house in Sevastopol. They conducted meetings and sermons through the Zoom program and collected very real money from parishioners.
This organization, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation, was not among those banned during the period of Ukrainian jurisdiction, and under the influence of preachers, hundreds, if not thousands of people donated savings and their real estate for the benefit of the pseudo-Christian church.
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