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Russia jails Dane for six years in Jehovah's Witnesses purge
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS FEBRUARY 6, 2019 / 4:37 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Russia jails Dane for six years in Jehovah's Witnesses purge
Andrew Osborn
4 MIN READ
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Wednesday found a Danish adherent of the Jehovah’s Witnesses guilty of organizing a banned extremist group and jailed him for six years in a case critics condemn as crushing religious freedom.
Armed police detained Dennis Christensen, a 46-year-old builder, in May 2017 at a prayer meeting in Oryol, some 200 miles (320 km) south of Moscow after a court in the region outlawed the local Jehovah’s Witnesses a year earlier.
Russia’s Supreme Court later ruled the group was “extremist” and ordered it to disband nationwide. Christiansen’s detention, Russia’s first extremism-related arrest of a Jehovah’s Witness, foreshadowed dozens more.
The court in the city of Oryol on Wednesday found Christiansen guilty after a long trial, his lawyer, his wife and a representative for the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Reuters.
-snip-
Russia jails Dane for six years in Jehovah's Witnesses purge
Andrew Osborn
4 MIN READ
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Wednesday found a Danish adherent of the Jehovah’s Witnesses guilty of organizing a banned extremist group and jailed him for six years in a case critics condemn as crushing religious freedom.
Armed police detained Dennis Christensen, a 46-year-old builder, in May 2017 at a prayer meeting in Oryol, some 200 miles (320 km) south of Moscow after a court in the region outlawed the local Jehovah’s Witnesses a year earlier.
Russia’s Supreme Court later ruled the group was “extremist” and ordered it to disband nationwide. Christiansen’s detention, Russia’s first extremism-related arrest of a Jehovah’s Witness, foreshadowed dozens more.
The court in the city of Oryol on Wednesday found Christiansen guilty after a long trial, his lawyer, his wife and a representative for the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Reuters.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-religion/russia-jails-dane-for-six-years-in-jehovahs-witnesses-purge-idUSKCN1PV0W2
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