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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A Danish Jehovah’s Witness returned to Denmark on Wednesday after spending five years in a Russian prison under Moscow’s crackdown on the religious group, the organization said.
Russia officially banned Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017, labeling the religious group an “extremist organization” in connection with its alleged “propaganda of exclusivity”. Dennis Christensen, a 49-year-old Dane, was arrested this year for leading a prayer meeting and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2019.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world could not be happier for Dennis and his wife Irina,” Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for the organization, said in a statement. “However, Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to be arrested, imprisoned and sometimes tortured simply for peacefully practicing their Christian faith.”
“We hope that the Russian authorities will soon stop the discriminatory attack on Jehovah’s Witnesses and allow them to pray freely as they do in over 200 other countries.”
Christensen was held in a penal colony in the western Kursk region. The group had previously claimed he was denied medical treatment and was harassed by prison authorities.
In June 2020, the Lgov District Court paroled Christensen after serving half of his sentence and replaced the remaining three years with a fine of 50,000 rubles (US$5,250). However, that ruling was overturned by the Kursk Regional Court after local prosecutors appealed the parole, insisting that Christensen had broken prison rules.