In Kabardino-Balkaria, an empty hall for worship of Jehovah's Witnesses was set on fire

On the evening of June 2, 2019, in Prokhladnoye (Kabardino-Balkaria), attackers set fire to an empty building where Jehovah's Witnesses had previously held worship services. At one time, the building was built by local believers, but because of persecution it is not used.

After firefighters extinguished the flames, three sources of ignition were discovered. The CCTV camera was previously rendered unusable. The building was badly damaged. The police arrived at the scene, conducted an inspection with witnesses, and a report was drawn up.

In Prokhladny, a criminal trial under the article "extremism" against Arkadi Hakobyan, a peaceful believer from Prokhladny, who was unreasonably persecuted by the court for about three years, recently ended. All charges were dropped after an appeal against the wrongful conviction was filed.

Nevertheless, the actions of officials against Jehovah's Witnesses apparently fuel an atmosphere of religious hatred and enmity and push aggressive people to commit such acts of vandalism.

Update. It became known that on July 2, 2019, in Kabardino-Balkaria, in connection with the arson of an empty hall for worship of Jehovah's Witnesses, a criminal case was initiated under the article "Intentional destruction or damage to property" committed in a generally dangerous way (part 2 of article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The case is being handled by the investigative department of the inter-municipal police department "Prokhladnensky".