MOSCOW, July 31 (Reuters) - A court in the Russian capital has confiscated ​123 real estate assets ‌which belonged to the Jehovah's Witnesses and transferred them to the ​Russian state, Moscow's court service ​said on Friday.

It said the ⁠property assets had previously ​been registered as belonging to the ​Swedish branch of Jehovah's Witnesses and included 63 residential and commercial properties ​with a total area ​of over 11,000 square metres and 60 ‌plots ⁠of land with a total area of 5.6 hectares situated across the country.

A Russian court ​banned ​Jehovah's Witnesses ⁠as an "extremist organisation" in 2017, a move ​that the European Court ​of ⁠Human Rights ruled in 2022 was itself unlawful. Many Jehovah's ⁠Witnesses ​in Russia have since ​been jailed after being convicted of "extremist ​activity."