Biography
Sergey Livievich Yerkin was born in 1953 in Vladivostok. He is a technician-architect by education. Since 1975, Sergey lived in Kazakhstan, where he worked as an engineer, architect and lead designer, designed buildings. In the 1980s, he moved to the Magadan Region, where he was also employed in the construction industry. The last place of work before retirement was as an engineer for design and estimate work at one of the mining enterprises in Chukotka.
His friends and acquaintances know Sergey as a kind and sympathetic person. He cared for his elderly mother until her death in 2007.
This intelligent and humble man, who had worked all his life for the good of society, is now accused of absurd crimes incompatible with his Christian beliefs.
In connection with the existing disease, doctors prescribed a diet for Sergey. The disease aggravates his position as a prisoner.
Case History
After a series of searches in Magadan in May 2018, Konstantin Petrov, Yevgeniy Zyablov and Sergey Yerkin were placed in a pretrial detention center. On the same day in Khabarovsk, the home of Ivan Puyda was searched. He was arrested and taken 1,600 km to a pretrial detention center in Magadan. The believers spent 2 to 4 months behind bars, and then ended up under house arrest. In March 2019, the FSB conducted another series of searches. The number of defendants in the case has reached 13, including 6 women and elderly. The investigator deemed holding peaceful meetings for worship as organizing, participating in and financing the activity of an extremist organization. In almost 4 years of investigation, the case materials against the 13 believers has grown to 66 volumes. The case went to court in March 2022. At the hearings, it became clear that the case was based on the testimony of a secret witness – an FSB informant who made covert recordings of peaceful meetings for worship. In March 2024, the believers were given suspended sentences ranging from 3 to 7 years, and the court of appeal later upheld this verdict.
