“Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world couldn’t be happier for Dennis and his wife, Irina,” Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for the organization said in a statement. “However, Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to be arrested, imprisoned, and sometimes tortured simply for the peaceful practice of their Christian faith.”
“We hope soon Russian authorities will halt the discriminatory attack on Jehovah’s Witnesses and allow them to worship freely as they do in over 200 other lands.”
Christensen was held at a penal colony in the western Kursk region. The group had previously claimed that he was denied medical treatment and was harassed by prison authorities.
In June 2020, the Lgov district court paroled Christensen after he served half of his sentence, and replaced the remaining three years with a fine of 50,000 rubles ($5,250). However, that ruling was overturned by the Kursk Regional Court after local prosecutors appealed the parole, insisting that Christensen had violated prison rules.