Key facts
- A Russian court has confiscated 123 real estate assets belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
- The assets have been transferred to the Russian state.
- The properties include 63 residential and commercial buildings and 60 plots of land.
- The assets were registered to the Swedish branch of Jehovah's Witnesses.
- Jehovah's Witnesses were banned as an "extremist organisation" in Russia in 2017.
A Russian court has ordered the confiscation of 123 real estate assets belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses, transferring ownership to the Russian state. The assets, which include residential and commercial properties totaling over 11,000 square meters and 5.6 hectares of land, were reportedly registered under the Swedish branch of the religious organization.
The confiscation follows a 2017 decision by a Russian court that banned Jehovah's Witnesses as an "extremist organization." Although the European Court of Human Rights later ruled this ban unlawful in 2022, many Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia have since been prosecuted for "extremist activity."
The General Prosecutor's Office initiated the lawsuit, naming eight foreign entities, including the US-based Worldwide Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses, as defendants. The prosecutor's office claims that Russian and foreign structures associated with the organization moved assets out of state reach through gift and donation transactions between 2016 and 2017.
Previously, Russian authorities had seized 131 properties owned by Jehovah's Witnesses, with an additional 60 subject to confiscation, valued at over $57 million. Some of these seized properties belonged to foreign legal entities from various European countries and the United States.