Polygamist leader Winston Blackmore blasted the criminal charges filed against him as religious persecution.

In a statement e-mailed to the Deseret News on Thursday, Blackmore said that despite being charged with practicing polygamy — the charges aren't about plural marriage.

"To us this is about religious persecution," he wrote. "Persecution has always been about politics. Whatever else is involved with it, it is still about politics. It is therefore no surprise to us that this spectacular grandstanding event has happened in the face of an up and coming provincial election. I hope this government has calculated all the risks. Time will tell."

Blackmore and Fundamentalist LDS Church bishop Jim Oler were arrested Wednesday on charges of practicing polygamy, which carries a potential punishment of up to five years in prison. Canadian prosecutors said Blackmore, 52, has 20 wives, and Oler, 44, has two.

Blackmore said some of his children watched as he was arrested, despite Royal Canadian Mounted Police efforts to avoid that. He said he was treated well by police, and family members were waiting when he was released from custody.

"We had a wonderful reunion and as I stood there in Cranbrook with a dozen grown up sons and daughters, all struggling in their own way to understand this religious persecution, not to mention the inevitable question of why a government presiding over this economy, would target them as employers, students, workers, taxpayers, all the while wasting enormous amounts of their hard earned dollars waging a political religious campaign," Blackmore wrote.

The men are due in court on Jan. 21. In the meantime, they have been ordered by a judge to remain in British Columbia, surrender their passports, report to police twice a month and "abstain from entering into or performing any celestial marriages."

The unusual charges are expected to immediately face religious freedom challenges, and British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal said he expects it. Several special prosecutors appointed during Oppal's investigation into the polygamous community of Bountiful have already said they did not think a prosecution would be successful.

FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop accused Canadian authorities of carrying out a "vindictive hatred" toward their faith. While anti-polygamy groups have hailed the charges, even some ex-members of the FLDS Church disagree.

"I think it's a mistake not to go the same way that Utah and Arizona have with sexual assault charges," said Debbie Palmer, who is a half-sister of Oler and related to Blackmore.

Palmer questioned if the prosecution was political and said going after polygamy alone would not send the right message.