ST. PETERSBURG, August 18 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Vyborg City Court of the Leningrad Region has banned key books of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist, the court’s press service told RAPSI on Friday.

The court prohibited the distribution of books named “Holy Writ. Translation of new world”, “Science instead of Bible”, “How to improve health”, and “Bible and its main theme”.

After the ruling takes effect it will be forwarded to the Russian Justice Ministry for adding the books to the federal extremist list.

On Thursday, the Justice Ministry included the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses and all its 395 local branches in the list of prohibited extremist organizations. According to the Justice Ministry, violations of the law “On Combatting Extremism” were revealed during inspection conducted in the organization.

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.