MOSCOW, December 11 (RAPSI) – Four residents of Russia’s Orenburg Region will go on trial on charges of creating, financing and participating in an extremist organization, the Investigative Committee’s press service reports Wednesday.

According to the investigation, from April 2017 to May 2018, the defendants, who are the followers of Jehovah's Witnesses, organized activity of the banned organization in the region in order to propagate its religious doctrine.

In April 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia ordered liquidation of the Jehovah's Witnesses managing organization and all its 395 local branches. In August, the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses was added to the list of banned extremist organizations.

Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization has had many legal problems in Russia. Since 2009, 95 materials distributed by the organization in the country have been declared extremist and 8 Jehovah's Witnesses’ branches have been liquidated, according to the Justice Ministry.

Jehovah's Witnesses is an international religious organization based in Brooklyn, New York.Since 2004 several branches and chapters of the organization were banned and shut down in various regions of Russia.