Released from Russia, Jehovah’s Witness returns to Denmark

By JAN M. OLSEN
Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish Jehovah’s Witness has returned to Denmark after spending five years in a Russian prison under Moscow’s crackdown on the religious group. Russia officially banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 and designated the religious denomination “an extremist organization” in connection to its alleged “propaganda of exclusivity.” Dennis Christensen, a 49-year-old Dane, who returned to Denmark Wednesday, was arrested that year for leading a prayer meeting, and was handed a six-year prison sentence in 2019. Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for the organization said that their members in Russia “continue to be arrested, imprisoned, and sometimes tortured simply for the peaceful practice of their Christian faith.”