FSB operatives set up hidden cameras in the Chaika bath complex in Perm to monitor gatherings of local Jehovah’s Witnesses. This, according to “MBH Media”, said the accused in the case of the organization Igor Turik at a meeting of the Industrial District Court of Perm. His lawyer Iosif Charny confirmed to Mediazone that the camera was mentioned in the materials of the criminal case.

“And they would go there further if it hadn’t turned out that they were secretly recording on video in this bath … You would have known what emotional pain these women experienced when they found out that their naked was recorded on video by“ professionals in their field, ”” said Turik in his last word in court.

According to him, the incident took place in July 2018. There were 27 people in the bath, they were baptizing new followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The FSB recognized this episode as the activity of an extremist organization conspiracy for a meeting of a garden cooperative.

As a result of this trial, five Perm followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses, accused under articles of extremism, were sentenced to suspended sentences.

In 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized Jehovah’s Witnesses as an extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the persecution of believers “nonsense”, but followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses are still detained and brought to trial, which often sentenced them to real terms of imprisonment.

(C)MEDUZA 2021