4 Jehovah’s Witnesses sentenced to prison in Russia

MOSCOW (AP) — Officials of the Jehovah’s Witnesses say four Russian members of the religious denomination have been sentenced to prison terms ranging up to seven years. Russia banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 and designated the religion an extremist organization. In a statement, Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman Jarrod Lopes says more than 110 adherents are now in prison in Russia. He says the latest convictions were handed down in a court in the city of Birobidzhan in Russia’s far East, four years after they were arrested in home raids.