Case History
In October 2020, the Khabarovsk Territory FSB opened a criminal case against 29-year-old Ilya Degtyarenko from the city of Vyazemsky for his “stable religious views.” FSB investigator Nemtsev, head of the local FSB department Alexei Svetachev and armed riot police conducted a rigorous 7-hour search in the apartment of the Degtyarenko spouses, knocking Ilya to the floor and twisting his hands behind his back. The believer was imprisoned in a pre-trial detention center for two weeks. Then, for more than three months, he was under a ban on certain actions and another two years under a written undertaking not to leave. In May 2021, the case was sent to court, and in September 2022, Judge Irina Loginova acquitted Ilya Degtyarenko. However, the prosecutor’s office appealed this decision, and the appeal overturned the verdict, returning the case for a new trial to the same court with a different composition. In August 2023, a guilty verdict was passed in the case - 2.5 years of suspended imprisonment.