Updated: March 28, 2024
Name: Markin Roman Nikolayevich
Date of Birth: March 18, 1974
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 4 day in a temporary detention facility, 170 day in a pre-trial detention, 120 day Under house arrest
Sentence: penalty in the form of a fine in the amount of 300,000 rubles

Biography

Roman Nikolaevich Markin was born in 1974 in the city of Znamenka (Ukraine). At the age of two, he moved with his parents to the city of Polyarny (Murmansk region). He studied in Veliky Ustyug (Vologda region).

Roman is a creative person and a versatile personality. He had to work as a mukosei and hairdresser, a high-altitude roofer and an auto mechanic, a specialist in interior decoration and a portrait photographer. He is fond of drawing, reading, playing the piano, saxophone, violin, balalaika and guitar.

Roman met his future wife Svetlana in the North. They got married on November 23, 2001. Svetlana was educated as a choreographer, make-up artist, baker, cook. The eldest daughter Marina is a future veterinarian, she loves animals and is fond of horseback riding. The 16-year-old youngest daughter Violetta has been studying letters and numbers from the Bible since she was 1.5 years old, since the whole family is deeply religious. Svetlana and Roman began studying the Bible in 2002 and later became Jehovah's Witnesses.

The friendly Markin family is fond of skating and skiing, swimming, intellectual and board games, singing, dancing, and communicating with fellow believers.

Case History

In April 2017, the families of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to the attention of the FSB officers in the Murmansk region. A year later, a series of searches took place in Polyarny, after which 13 citizens, including the minor Violetta Markina, were taken for interrogations, which lasted until 6 a.m. the next day. Investigator A. V. Gulin considered prayers and reading the Bible dangerous acts for the state. Roman Markin and Viktor Trofimov were sent to a pre-trial detention center for six months on suspicion of organizing the activities of an extremist organization. They spent another 4 months under house arrest. After 20 court hearings, the prosecutor requested 6 years in prison for Roman Markin and 6 years and 5 months for Viktor Trofimov. On January 24, 2020, Viktoriya Loginova, a judge of the Polyarny District Court, sentenced the believers to fines: Viktor Trofimov in the amount of 350,000 rubles, and Roman Markin - 300,000 rubles. The Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation upheld the verdict.