Name: Baylo Valeriy Semenovich
Date of Birth: November 1, 1957
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 253 day in a pre-trial detention
Current restrictions: detention center
Sentence: 2 years and 6 months of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony, with restriction of liberty for a period of 9 months
Currently held in: Detention Center No.3 for Krasnodar Territory
Address for correspondence: Baylo Valeriy Semenovich, born 1957, Detention Center No.3 for Krasnodar Territory, Ul. Parkhomenko, 33, Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Territory, 353905

Letters of support can be sent by regular mail or through the «FSIN-letter system». To pay for service with the card of a foreign bank use Prisonmail.

Note: discussing topics related to criminal prosecution is not allowed in letters; languages other than Russian will not pass.

Biography

Valeriy Baylo, a pensioner from the Krasnodar Territory, became an accused in the spring of 2024 because of his faith in Jehovah God. His home was searched, after which the man ended up in a pre-trial detention center.

Valeriy was born in November 1957 in the village of Roylyanka, Odessa region of Ukraine. He has a younger brother. Their father worked on a state farm as a combine operator, and their mother was a high school math teacher. The parents are no longer alive.

As a child, Valeriy loved to play chess and read books, was engaged in freestyle wrestling. After school, he graduated from the Nikolayev Shipbuilding Institute and got a job at the locomotive depot, where he met Yekaterina. In 1979 they got married. The marriage produced two sons and a daughter.

In the early 1980s, Valeriy, his wife and son moved to Yakutsk. In 1992, a family with two children returned to Ukraine, and after 2 years they moved to Gelendzhik (Krasnodar Territory).

In 1999, Valeriy retired and started breeding goats, rabbits and chickens. Yekaterina taught history and German at college and school. She was fond of local history and tourism—she organized hikes for students, conducted excursions to historical sites in the vicinity of Gelendzhik. Yekaterina also loved to read books, especially poetry, as well as play chess.

In the early 2000s, Valeriy became interested in the Bible, and soon his wife joined him in researching this book. In 2001, the couple became Jehovah's Witnesses. They were impressed by the detailed Bible prophecies and the scientific facts mentioned in the Bible.

In 2002, Yekaterina fell ill and later died of cancer. Due to the default, the family lost all the money earned in the North, and Valeriy and his three children were forced to live at the plant for seven years without electricity and water.

Valeriy suffers from a chronic disease, which, when exacerbated, is accompanied by acute pain. Also, the believer has a complete rupture of the ligaments of the knee joint, and the knee rests solely on the muscles, which causes severe pain.

According to Valeriy, faith in God helps him cope with all difficulties. Despite the criminal prosecution, the believer tries to remain calm. "Now we are defending Jehovah, but soon he will stand up for us!" he said.

Case History

In March 2024, a criminal case was initiated against Valeriy Baylo under the article on participation in the activities of an extremist organization. A few days later, the man was summoned to the Investigative Committee for interrogation, after which his house was searched, and the believer himself was placed in a pre-trial detention center. On June 26, 2024, the first court hearing took place, and on July 3, Baylo was sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony. In the pre-trial detention center, the believer’s health condition deteriorated significantly. He submitted a number of requests for medical assistance, but they remained unanswered. In this regard, the lawyer sent complaints to the relevant authorities.
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