Updated: March 28, 2024
Name: Kozlitin Aleksandr Alekseevich
Date of Birth: October 14, 1975
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Sentence: punishment in the form of 2 years of imprisonment with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public and religious organizations for a term of 2 years, with restriction of liberty for a term of 6 months; The sentence of imprisonment shall be considered conditional with a probationary period of 1 year

Biography

Back in the spring of 2019, a criminal case was opened against Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk resident Alexander Kozlitin, who is suspected, in particular, of publicly reading passages from the Bible. What is known about him?

Alexander was born in 1975 in the city of Nevelsk on Sakhalin. Alexander's older brother went missing in the 1990s. His mother is a pensioner.

In his youth, he was professionally engaged in martial arts. Sometimes he replaced the coach and conducted training sessions himself. He graduated from the school as a motorist-sailor. Alexander received a deferment from military service, as he was the only breadwinner in the family.

In recent years, Alexandr worked as a driver. In his spare time, he likes to build models of cars, ships and airplanes.

Even in his youth, Alexandr was worried about serious life questions, the answers to which he found in the second half of the 1990s, when he first got acquainted with the Bible. Applying what he learned from it, he felt God's support in his life, and this prompted him to become a Christian.

The criminal prosecution brought anxiety and anxiety into Alexander's life. At work, he was given to understand that because of his religion, he could be fired at any time. In addition, Alexander's elderly mother is very worried about her son, but, according to him, "she is mentally prepared that the times have come when people are imprisoned just because someone does not like their religion."

Case History

In January 2019, at least 11 searches were carried out at the homes of local Jehovah’s Witnesses in three Sakhalin settlements. The criminal case  against the couple Sergey and Tatyana Kulakov, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Yevgeniy Yelin and Alexandr Kozlitin for their faith, was investigated by the FSB in the Sakhalin Region. In January 2021, the trial began in court, and a year later a verdict was issued: Sergey Kulakov and Yevgeniy Yelin were given a 6.5 year suspended sentence, and Tatyana Kulakova, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Alexandr Kozlitin were given a 2 year suspended sentence. The appellate and cassation courts upheld the verdict.