Six-year prison sentence for Jehovah’s Witness in Russia sparks outcry
Dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been charged with participating in or organizing the group’s activities since since the Supreme Court outlawed the group two years ago.
A Russian court sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to six years in prison. He is the first member of the group to be incarcerated since Russia’s Supreme Court declared the pacifist Christian denomination an “extremist organization” in 2017.
The court cited the Jehovah’s Witnesses for promoting the “exclusivity and supremacy” of their beliefs.
Dennis Christensen, a 46-year-old carpenter and Danish national who has lived in Russia for more than two decades, was sentenced in February by a court in Oryol, a city some 200 miles south of Moscow. His wife, Irina Christensen, a Russian national, said the allegations against her husband were “absurd.”
