Russia jails four Jehovah’s Witnesses in latest religious crackdown

Four Jehovah's Witnesses have been jailed in Russia this past week, convicted of extremist activity.

The convictions reportedly followed covert video recordings by spies who infiltrated their prayer sessions, a spokesperson for the faith group confirmed.

The four men joined a list of some 220 people who have been sent to prison in a major crackdown by Russian authorities on Jehovah's Witnesses since 2017, when they were banned as an "extremist organisation".

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2022 that Russia's ban was unlawful, and it has similarly been condemned by the U.N. Human Rights Committee.

In the first of two recent cases, Oleg Postnikov, 61, was sentenced to six years and two months in the city of Birobidzhan.

"After almost a full year of covert filming, the FSB (security service) managed to select only a handful of meetings they considered the most 'extremist', which in fact prove that we are ordinary people who respect everyone without exception," he said in his final statement to the court.

"A telling example is the closing prayer in which those present asked God for strength to endure the hardships caused by persecution. There is no request for punishment or harm to our persecutors."

In the other case, Valeriy Tolmazov, 71, Aleksandr Kostyuk, 53, and Maksim Barbazyuk, 43, were sentenced to six years each in the city of Tver.

"What stands out in these two new cases is not just the use of covert operatives, but how deeply those operatives integrated themselves into small, trusting groups before feeding selectively edited material back to investigators," said Jarrod Lopes, a New York-based spokesperson for the World Headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Jehovah's Witnesses have been under pressure for years in Russia where the Orthodox Church championed by President Vladimir Putin is dominant.

Mr Putin said in 2018 that he did not understand why authorities were pursuing the group and called for the matter to be analysed. Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian denomination known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, and rejection of military service and blood transfusions.