MOSCOW — A Russian court has sentenced a Danish member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to six years on extremism charges in a case that has rekindled memories of the Soviet-era persecution of Christians and triggered widespread international criticism.
Dennis Christensen, a 46-year-old carpenter who has lived in Russia for more than two decades, was sentenced Feb. 6 by a court in Oryol, a city some 200 miles south of Moscow.
The Danish national was detained two years ago by officers from Russia’s federal security service during a raid on a Jehovah’s Witness prayer hall in Oryol in May 2017.
In 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses an “extremist organization” for promoting the “exclusivity and supremacy” of their beliefs.
Christensen is the first to be sentenced since that decision though at least 49 others are being held awaiting trial or are under house arrest.
The Kremlin has spoken out against “foreign religions” amid tensions with the West.
In 2016, President Vladimir Putin approved a law that outlawed missionary work carried out in Russia by non-Russian Orthodox Church groups, including Baptists.
Human rights organizations have warned that Christensen’s imprisonment could trigger a wave of arrests of members of other minority religious groups in Russia, a country with a long history of discrimination against Christians. (RNS)
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