Russia detains Jehovah's Witnesses, searches properties in new criminal case

Russian law enforcement detained a number of Jehovah's Witnesses and conducted searches at 16 different addresses in Moscow on Wednesday as part of a new criminal investigation against the group, state investigators said. Russia's Supreme Court branded the Jehovah's Witnesses an "extremist" organisation in 2017 and ordered it to disband.

Russian law enforcement detained a number of Jehovah's Witnesses and conducted searches at 16 different addresses in Moscow on Wednesday as part of a new criminal investigation against the group, state investigators said. The Investigative Committee, which handles probes into major crimes, said the people had been detained for organising and taking part in the activities of a banned religious group.

It said they had met in a flat in northern Moscow and studied the teachings of the religion despite being aware of the ban on the group's activities. Russia's Supreme Court branded the Jehovah's Witnesses an "extremist" organisation in 2017 and ordered it to disband. Since then the authorities have detained dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses and convicted them on extremism charges.

The Investigative Committee did not say how many people had been detained in total in a statement on its website on Wednesday.