International Memorial defends Dennis Christensen

On February 8, 2019, the board of the International Historical, Educational, Charitable and Human Rights Society Memorial issued a statement demanding the immediate release of Dennis Christensen and the rest of the arrested Jehovah's Witnesses.

Recalling the decision of the Supreme Court to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as an extremist organization, human rights activists stressed: "This shameful and anti-legal decision has put Russia among the countries with the most odious regimes. Jehovah's Witnesses were brutally persecuted in Hitler's Germany. In all democratic countries, Jehovah's Witnesses operate freely. [...] The six years that Christensen received for exercising his constitutional right to freedom of religion are quite comparable to the terms that Jehovah's Witnesses received under the Soviet regime.

Human rights activists again drew attention to the incompatibility of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses with common sense: "It is absurd when Jehovah's Witnesses convicted under the Soviet regime (Memorial knows many hundreds of such ruined destinies) are recognized as victims of political repression in accordance with the Federal Law on Rehabilitation (1991) - and at the same time sent to prison current followers of Jehovah's Witnesses."

Summarizing the above, International Memorial stated: "This verdict once again confirms the flawedness of Russia's 'anti-extremist' legislation, which makes it possible to enroll almost everyone as extremists. We demand the lifting of the unconstitutional ban on Jehovah's Witnesses."