Seven Jehovah’s Witnesses have been handed prison terms on extremism charges in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region amid an ongoing crackdown on the religious group that has been banned in Russia since 2017.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Russian website said on September 21 that a court in Gukovo sentenced Aleksei Gorely and Oleg Shidlovsky to 6 1/2 years in prison on September 20 and handed seven-year prison terms to Nikita Moiseyev, Aleksei Dyadkin, Yevgeny Razumov, and Vladimir Popov.

According to the website, Gorely has a 7-year-old son, and the wife of Shidlovsky had three strokes since her husband and the other men were arrested in August 2020 after their homes were searched.

All six were charged with extremism.

Since the faith was outlawed, dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses have had cases launched against them, with many sentenced to prison in Russia.

The United States has condemned Russia’s ongoing crackdown on Jehovah’s Witnesses and other peaceful religious minorities.

For decades, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant Russian Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin.

The Christian group is known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, rejection of military service, and refusal to mark national and religious holidays or birthdays. {ttps://www.rferl.org}