Security forces planted religious books in the toilet for Jehovah's Witnesses

Dzerzhinsk (Nizhny Novgorod region). On the evening of November 8, 2016, shortly before the start of the worship service of Jehovah's Witnesses, Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Natalia Sukhova, accompanied by an inspector of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and plainclothes officers, entered their building under the pretext of a fire inspection. Later, a police squad arrived.

A plainclothes officer quietly entered the toilet for people with disabilities. After leaving there, he stated that in the toilet there were two religious brochures included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials (FSEM). Since there were no brochures in the building before the arrival of the security forces, and Jehovah's Witnesses do not keep religious literature in the toilet, the believers resolutely stated that "this is a planting and provocation on the part of those who came." The planned worship service was disrupted.

Jehovah's Witnesses strongly object to labelling them "extremists," emphasizing that extremism is deeply alien to their biblically based views and morals. They do not use literature from the FSEM and do not allow it to appear in worship buildings.