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The Head Office of the Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation into creation of an association whose activity involves violence against citizens and causing other damage to their health (part 1 of Article 239 of the RF Penal Code).

The investigators believe that no later than 2011 unidentified people set up in Moscow and Saint Petersburg an association of followers of Aum Shinrikyo (Alef) in the form of a religious group, the activity of which involves violence against citizens and causing other damage to their health. Organizers of the said cult used physical and psychological pressure on citizens to make them give donations and their property. Between 2012 and 2014, Aum Shinrikyo carried out its criminal activity by gathering donations via the Internet. Members of Aum Shinrikyo held gatherings in the said cities.

Aum Shinrikyo (Alef) is ranked among terrorist organizations and its activity is prohibited in the Russian Federation.

At the moment, the investigators together with officers of the Federal Security Service and the Russian Ministry of the Interior are searching premises in Moscow and Saint Petersburg to identify those involved in the activity of the cult and to find literature or objects meant for religious practices, electronic data carriers and other objects or documents relevant for the investigation.

Head of Media Relations                                                                                                                               V.I. Markin