Shamsheva Tatyana

Updated: April 24, 2024
Name: Shamsheva Tatyana Viktorovna
Date of Birth: June 7, 1977
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, 242 day in a pre-trial detention
Sentence: punishment in the form of 1 year of imprisonment with serving a sentence in a penal colony of general regime, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to participation in the work of religious organizations for a period of 2 years, with restriction of liberty for a term of 6 months; to set off the time of her detention in custody in the term of serving the sentence; to be considered to have served a sentence of deprivation of liberty

Biography

Tatyana Shamsheva, a teacher of economics by education, was convicted under an "extremist" article in September 2020 only for her faith in God Jehovah. Her long stay in the pre-trial detention center, the trial itself and the conviction affected her health: her chronic diseases worsened.

Tatyana was born in 1977 in Cherepovets (Vologda region). She grew up and was brought up in her parents' hometown - St. Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia. Since childhood she loved visiting museums, theaters and historical places, as well as choreography and sewing. Tatyana graduated with honors from the Russian State Pedagogical University. Tatyana graduated with honors from Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University. Then for many years she had been teaching accounting, economics and law, and worked as an accountant.

Since 1993, Tatyana has been learning what the Bible teaches. Her mother shared her interest in the spiritual. Over time, they found the answers to their questions and found real meaning in life. Tatyana was especially touched by the fact that God has a personal name, and the whole story in the Bible is logical.

In 2010, Tatyana moved to Novozybkov, Bryansk region, and later to Bryansk, where after the trial she is serving a sentence of restriction of liberty. She still keeps her head, loves to spend time with friends, take pictures and make handicrafts from paper, fabric and other materials. She dreams of learning to paint landscapes and play the guitar.

Case History

On September 3, 2020, the Novozybkovsky City Court found Vladimir Khokhlov, Eduard Zhinzhikov, Tatyana Shamsheva and Olga Silaeva guilty of extremist activities and sentenced them to imprisonment for a term of 12 to 15 months, followed by restriction of freedom and a ban on holding leadership positions. Since the believers had already spent about a year behind bars, they were released right in the courtroom. All of them ended up in jail after mass raids by armed security forces in 2019 in the Bryansk region. The security forces considered the usual communication of believers on religious topics to be a “criminal conspiracy”. However, during the court session it turned out that “information and files relevant to the criminal case were not found.” Due to the stress experienced, Vladimir Khokhlov suffered a hypertensive crisis, and Eduard Zhinzhikov and his wife lost an unborn child. In October 2020, the appeal upheld the verdict. In December 2021, this decision was upheld by the Court of Cassation.
Timeline