An 85-year-old veteran of the Second World War is the first Russian Jehovah’s Witness known to have been prosecuted for “production and distribution of extremist materials”, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The prosecution is the latest turn in the ongoing nationwide state campaign against the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Aleksei Fedorin, the veteran, denied the charges, explaining that police gathered various Jehovah’s Witness titles he distributed for several years before they were banned, and that he was ill on the recent days he is alleged to have distributed them.

 

Fedorin was also interrogated for eight and a half hours continuously, although he suffers from dizziness and faints. The judge in the case refused to comment on her decision to Forum 18. Earlier prosecutions for producing and distributing religious literature have involved controversially banned Islamic titles. Previous cases against Jehovah’s Witnesses have rested on little-used provisions of some regional Administrative Codes. In at least one case, an attempt appears to have been made to recruit a Jehovah’s Witness as an FSB informer.

 

Aleksei Fedorin, an 85-year-old Russian veteran of the Second World War, is the first Jehovah’s Witness known to have been prosecuted for distributing extremist material, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The prosecution is the latest turn in the ongoing nationwide state campaign against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which gathered speed with the addition of numerous Jehovah’s Witness books and brochures to the Federal List of Extremist Materials in March 2010. Earlier such prosecutions have involved Islamic literature.

 

 

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