A Russian court for the first time convicted a Jehovah’s Witness, Danish national Dennis Christensen, on extremism charges, BBC Russia reported on Wednesday. Christensen, 46, was detained by armed security forces in the midst of a Bible reading in Oryol almost 400 kilometers south of Moscow. His detention in May 2017 came a month after Russia’s Supreme Court declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses an extremist group. The Jehovah’s Witnesses doctrine, placing God above country, has earned the Christian denomination the distrust of governments around the world, including the United States, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

A district court in Oryol found Christiansen guilty of extremism and sentenced him to 6 years behind bars, BBC Russia reported on Wednesday. State prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of 6.5 years under charges that carry up to 10 years of imprisonment. Amnesty International called on Russia to “immediately and unconditionally” release Christensen ahead of the verdict. In his last word on Jan. 30, Christensen called his trial “unfair,” “absolutely stupid and insane.”