Name: Rayman Sergey Alekseyevich
Date of Birth: October 5, 1996
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 56 day in a pre-trial detention, 33 day Under house arrest
Sentence: punishment in the form of 7 years of imprisonment with restriction of liberty for a term of 1 year 6 months, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of religious organizations for a term of 2 years 6 months, punishment in the form of imprisonment shall be considered suspended with a probationary period of 2 years

Biography

In July 2018, security forces, accompanied by riot police, using crowbars, broke into the apartment of Sergey Rayman and his wife Valeriya with television cameras. The young couple learned that a criminal case was opened against them for their faith. Both were detained, Sergey was sent to a pre-trial detention center for 2 months. After the investigation, the return of the case to the prosecutor and court proceedings in October 2020, Sergey and Valeriya were sentenced to 8 and 7 years of probation, respectively, but on February 26, 2021, the Kostroma Regional Court reduced the terms to 3 and 2 years probation.

Sergey Rayman was born in October 1996 in the city of Kineshma (Ivanovo region). As a child, he was fond of skiing. After school he entered the construction college, became a specialist in the field of interior decoration. His hobby is video filming. In addition, he loves to cook unusual food for family and friends. Sergey took over love and respect for the Bible, first of all, from his grandmother.

Sergey met his future wife Valeria in 2013. They got married in 2015 and began to live in Kostroma. The criminal prosecution has greatly affected the emotional and physical well-being of the young couple, but they endure all the hardships. “I am not ashamed of my beliefs, which helped me to become a worthy person,” Sergey said in his last word to the court.

Case History

In July 2018, the life of young spouses Sergey and Valeria Rayman was divided into “before” and “after”. They were accused of extremism under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for participating in worship services. The Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Kostroma Region investigated the case for 1.5 years. During this time, the couple survived imprisonment in solitary confinement, a ban on correspondence and reading the Bible, house arrest, and a restriction on communication even with each other. In August 2019, the court began considering their case, but 1.5 months later returned it to the prosecutor for the unfounded accusation. After re-examining the case, the court sentenced Sergey and Valeriya to 8 and 7 years of probation, respectively. In February 2021, the regional court reduced the terms to 3 and 2 years, but the cassation returned the case to the appeal stage. Based on the results of the reconsideration in the regional court, Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was excluded from the verdict and the spouses were given 7 and 6.5 years suspended with a probationary period of 2 years. In August 2022, the cassation court finally approved this decision.