Chausova Oksana

Name: Chausova Oksana Borisovna
Date of Birth: June 18, 1986
Current status: main sentence served
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 175 day in a pre-trial detention, 202 day Under house arrest, 115 day in prison
Current restrictions: restriction of freedom
Sentence: imprisonment for a term of 1 year 10 months with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public and religious organizations and associations, for a term of 2 years, with restriction of liberty for a term of 6 months, with serving a sentence in the form of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony
Released: November 3, 2025

Biography

In December 2024, the court sentenced Oksana Chausova and her husband Dmitriy to 2.5 years in a penal colony because of their faith in Jehovah God.

Oksana was born in June 1986 in the city of Shu (Kazakhstan). When the girl was 13, her father died. She was raised by her mother and stepfather.

Oksana's youth was spent in the Kursk region. There she graduated from medical school with a degree in nursing. Before the criminal prosecution, she worked as a manicure and pedicure master.

Oksana got married in 2012, at the same time she moved to Kursk. Her husband Dmitry is a welder by profession, in his spare time he is engaged in viticulture.

Thanks to her believing grandparents, Oksana was familiar with the Bible from childhood, and when she grew up, she began to seriously think about what the meaning of life is, whether justice will be restored around the world. She found the answers to her questions in the pages of the Bible, and her trust in this book and in God grew. In 2014, Oksana and her husband embarked on the Christian path.

After her arrest, Oksana lost her job, was separated from her husband, and began to have serious health problems. Her relatives do not understand how in modern society a person can find himself behind bars just because of his religious views.

Prosecution of several family members

Case History

In August 2023, searches were carried out at the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kursk. An FSB investigator initiated a criminal case against Nikolay Kupriyanskiy and Dmitriy and Oksana Chausov. All three were detained. They were charged with organizing the activity of an extremist organization and participating in it. Dmitriy was sent to a pretrial detention center, and later, like Nikolay and Oksana, placed under house arrest. The Chausovs were separated due to a ban on communication. In June 2024, the case went to court. The verdict was announced 6 months later: Nikolay Kupriyanskiy — 6 years in a penal colony; Dmitriy Chausov and Oksana — 2.5 years each. In May 2025, the court of appeal upheld this decision, while reducing the assigned terms: for Kupriyanskiy — to 4.5 years, the Chausovs — to 1 year and 10 months. Dmitriy Chausov was released in the courtroom, as he had already served his entire term in a pretrial detention center, and Oksana was sent to a penal colony, from where she was released on August 29, 2025.
Timeline
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