RUSSIA: Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims face up to six years' imprisonment .... Taganrog Jehovah's Witness trial continues The 61st hearing in the criminal trial of 16 Jehovah's Witnesses at Taganrog City Court took place on 17 June. Proceedings were again adjourned, and the next hearing is due to be held on 24 June, according to the court website. The defendants were all members of the now-dissolved community declared "extremist" by Rostov-on-Don Regional Court in September 2009. The decision was upheld by Russia's Supreme Court in December 2009 (see F18News 8 December 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1385). The 16 stand accused of continuing the banned organisation's activities after the ruling came into force. The proceedings have been characterised by lengthy indictments (running to 900 pages) and long periods of questioning of the defendants (12 hours over two days in the case of Yury Baklushin, the first of them to take the stand, according to the Caucasian Knot news website). The sixteen defendants are: Yuri Baklushin, Aleksei Koptev, Aleksandr Skvortsov, and Nikolai Trotsyuk (all elders who are charged with organisation of extremist activity under Article 282.2, Part 1, and involvement of minors in a criminal group or crimes motivated by political, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred or enmity under Article 150, Part 4); Kirill Chetverikov, Andrei Goncharov, his wife Oksana Goncharova, Vladimir Kozhukhov, Tatyana Kravchenko, her son Kirill Kravchenko, Vladislav Kruglikov, Karen Minasyan, Vladimir Moyseenko, Vyacheslav Shchekalev, Nikolai's son Sergei Trotsyuk and Roman Voloshchuk (all charged with involvement in extremist activity under Article 282.2, Part 2). ..... in http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1971