The authorities in Russia-annexed Crimea sentenced several Jehovah’s Witness to lengthy in prison terms for expressing the religious beliefs, Amnesty International reported.

On March 5, the Dzhankoy District Court found Sergei Filatov, the father of four, guilty of “organising the activities of an extremist organisation” and sentenced him to six years in prison.

The Russian authorities often hunt for Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Filatov case is the latest example of the wholesale export of Russia’s brutally repressive policies to Crimea.

“Sergei Filatov is a prisoner of conscience, facing years in a penal colony solely for expressing his faith. Across Russia, Jehovah’s Witnesses are being sent to jail, tortured and harassed under vague counter-extremism legislation,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director.

The Filatov family was among the eight houses that were searched in November 2018 by more than 200 police officers. An investigation was launched against him under Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code regarding extremist organisations.

According to the investigation, his activities included conducting “religious meetings… and propaganda of religious ideas… using the place of (his) registration and residence”, the report said.

On March 5, a court in the Crimean city of Yalta convicted another member of the religious group, Artyom Gerasimov, of organising extremist activities and fined him 400,000 rubles, ($6000).

Amnesty International said that Filatov and all other Jehovah’s Witness were imprisoned for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of religion and belief are prisoners of conscience.

Russia officially banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses in April 2017 and labelled the Christian denomination an “extremist organisation”.

Since then, more than 200 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been included in the list of “extremists and terrorists” by Rosfinmonitoring, a Russian government agency charged with monitoring financial flows and countering illegal transactions.