Updated: March 28, 2024
Name: Ivashin Igor Nikolaevich
Date of Birth: April 16, 1976
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Sentence: punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 6 years, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public organizations, for a period of 5 years, with restriction of liberty for a term of 1 year; The sentence of imprisonment shall be considered conditional with a probationary period of 3 years and 6 months

Biography

In 2018, law enforcers tapped Igor Ivashin's phone and conducted covert surveillance of his house. The believer was searched and accused of organizing extremist activities. In April 2020, the court found Ivashin guilty and sentenced him to 6 years of probation. On May 21, 2020, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict.

Igor was born in 1976 in Lensk, where he lived all his life. As a child, he was actively fond of hunting, fishing, playing football and hockey. He has a younger sister, Irina.

After school, Igor decided to follow in his father's footsteps and became a geologist. But, after working for five years in various expeditions, he decided to leave geology and got a job as a mechanic for the maintenance of heat and power networks, which he works to this day.

In 1999, Igor married Natalia, whom he met while still at school - they studied in parallel classes. Soon after the wedding, the couple became interested in the teachings of the Bible. Natalia then worked as a school physics teacher. The couple had two daughters. The eldest of them, Victoria, graduated with honors from high school.

Case History

In June 2018, 22 Jehovah’s Witnesses were taken to police stations in Lensk, Yakutia, during mass searches. Operational-search activities were carried out by employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), including investigators Andrey Romanenko and Andrey Myreev. During the interrogations, it turned out that civilians had been under surveillance for more than six months. During this time, the telephone conversations of Igor Ivashin, one of the detainees, were tapped. In addition, audio and video surveillance were conducted in his apartment. As a result, a criminal case was initiated under the article “organization of the activities of an extremist organization”. The prosecutor requested that Igor Ivashin be sentenced to 7 years in prison, but on April 1, 2020, the judge of the Lensky District Court of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Zhanna Schmidt, sentenced him to 6 years probation for believing in Jehovah God. The Court of Appeal upheld the verdict.