A Russian court has sentenced a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses to 7.5 years in prison, a spokesperson for the religious denomination said, while in Moscow state investigators opened a new criminal investigation into the group.

Russia's Supreme Court branded the Jehovah's Witnesses an "extremist" organisation in 2017 and ordered it to disband. Since then authorities have detained hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses and convicted dozens on extremism charges.

In the southern region of Krasnodar, Alexander Ivshin, 63, was sentenced to 7.5 years in a penal colony, after being accused of organising activities on behalf...