Moscow - A court in Russian-controlled
Crimea jailed a Jehovah's Witness for six years on Thursday
after finding him guilty of organising the activities of a
banned extremist organisation, part of a crackdown rights
activists say violates religious freedom.
The court in the Crimean town of Dzhankoi explained in a
statement why it had found Sergei Filatov, 47, guilty, saying he
had knowingly ignored a 2017 decision from Russia's Supreme
Court which ruled the Christian denomination was an extremist
organisation and should disband.
Filatov is the first Jehovah's Witness since the Supreme
Court's ruling to be convicted for practicing his religion in
Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and one of
dozens prosecuted in similar cases by Russian authorities.
Jehovah's Witnesses have been under pressure for years in
Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by
President Vladimir Putin. Orthodox scholars have cast them as a
dangerous foreign sect that erodes state institutions and
traditional values, allegations they reject.
Jehovah's Witnesses say Russia's constitution guarantees
their right to exercise freedom of religion and deny wrongdoing.
Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a spokesman for the European Association
of Jehovah’s Witnesses, condemned Filatov's conviction in a
statement.
"It is sad that the massive repression of faith, which has
been unleashed by security services in dozens of regions of
Russia, has reached Crimea,” said Sivulskiy, whose own father
Pavel was jailed for seven years in 1959 by the Soviet
authorities for printing bible literature.
"Sergei Filatov was convicted of a grave criminal offence,
as a dangerous enemy of the state, for a simple family worship
service. The case is obviously trumped up."
Jarrod Lopes, a U.S.-based spokesman for the religious
group, said Filatov was married with four children and would
appeal against the Crimean court's ruling.
Putin said in 2018 he did not understand why authorities
were pursuing the group and called for the matter to be
analysed. But the Kremlin has said since that the group remains
illegal under current legislation and has declined to confirm
whether the law will be changed or not.
Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian denomination known for
door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, and rejection of
military service and blood transfusions. The group has about
170,000 followers in Russia, and 8 million worldwide.