Name: Murych Andrey Yuriyevich
Date of Birth: April 24, 1991
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 304 day in a pre-trial detention
Sentence: штраф (300,000 RUB)
Currently held in: Detention Center No. 1 in Saratov Region
Address for correspondence: Murych Andrey Yuriyevich, born 1991, SIZO No. 1 in Saratov Region, ul. Kutyakova, 105, Saratov, Russia, 410012

Biography

Andrey Murych is one of 5 residents of Balakovo sent to a pre-trial detention center after searches of believers. He is a decent family man with a reputation as an honest worker and a reliable person, who was followed by the security forces. Andrey was accused of extremism and sent to prison only because of his belief in Jehovah God.

Andrey was born in 1991 in the city of Balakovo (Saratov region). He is the only child in the family. His parents are retired, but his father still works at the factory. As a child, Andrey played football and judo.

After graduating from school, Andrey immediately went to work. He worked as a loader, storekeeper, sales representative. Because of his peace-loving Christian convictions, Andrey at one time asked for the replacement of military service with an alternative civilian one. Prior to his arrest, he worked as a metallurgist.

Andrey first heard about the Bible from his grandmother. While examining this ancient book, he was impressed by the prophecies recorded in it. In 2007 Andrey decided to become a Christian and devoted his life to serving God.

Andrey met his future wife Anastasiya in a circle of friends. They got married in the summer of 2009. Anastasiya shares her husband's religious views. In his free time, Andrey likes to play football, basketball and volleyball. Anastasiya is fond of winter sports. The couple have a young daughter. Family hobby is travelling.

Relatives and friends are worried about what happened, because they cannot understand why such a decent person could be put in jail.

Case History

In 2021, the residents of the city of Balakovo were under surveillance, their conversations were recorded. Considering peaceful discussions of the Bible to be extremism, the FSB initiated a criminal case and received permission to search the homes of the believers. A month later, security forces invaded eight homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Aleksey Bogatov, Vladimir Mavrin, Yevgeniy Fomashin, Andrey Murych and Sergey Tyurin were placed in a temporary holding facility after interrogations held at night. Two days later, they were transfered to a pretrial detention center 170 km from home. They spent 10 months in custody. In January 2023, the court ruled to change the preventive measure against the believers to a ban on certain actions. In November 2023, the district court announced the verdict: Aleksey Bogatov and Vladimir Mavrin a 6-yesr suspended sentence; Andrey Murych, Sergey Tyurin and Yevgeniy Fomashin fined 300,000 rubles.