COURT IN
KURSK OBLAST
RELEASES DANISH JEHOVAH'S WITNESS FROM PENAL COLONY, REPLACING
PRISON TIME WITH
FINE
A Lgov
district court
of Kursk oblast replaced the remaining portion of the six-year
sentence of a
Jehovah's Witness from Denmark, Dennis Christensen, with a fine
of 400,000
rubles. This was reported by Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.
Christensen
was the
leader of the Orel congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. He was
arrested in May
2017 and in February 2019 he was found guilty of arranging the
activity of an
extremist movement (part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal
Code) and sentenced
to six years in a penal colony of general regime.
Danish
authorities had
been "profoundly concerned" with the sentence and urged Russia
to
observe freedom of religious confession.
In 2017,
the Supreme
Court found the Jehovah's Witnesses to be an extremist
organization and
prohibited the activity of the religious association in Russia.
After that,
dozens of believers throughout the country became subjects of
criminal cases.
(tr. by PDS, posted 23 June 2020)
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