Name: Tyurin Sergey Alekseyevich
Date of Birth: July 31, 1994
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: penalty in the form of a fine in the amount of 300,000 rubles
Currently held in: Detention Center No. 1 in Saratov Region
Address for correspondence: Tyurin Sergey Alekseyevich, born 1994, SIZO No. 1 in Saratov Region, ul. Kutyakova, 105, Saratov, Russia, 410012

Biography

Sergey Tyurin was sent to a pre-trial detention center for peaceful religious beliefs, along with 4 other believers from Balakovo. The law enforcement agencies followed them and considered their joint discussion of biblical teachings as extremism.

Sergey was born in 1994 in the city of Balakovo (Saratov region). His mother has two professions—a ship's cook and a designer, she devoted her youth to raising children. She currently works as a cleaner. Father is a mechanical engineer, works as a locksmith of the 6th category. Sergey has two younger brothers.

As a child, Sergey was inquisitive and sociable, attended various sports sections. At the age of 7 he began to learn to play the piano, and later moved to the guitar class.

Sergey graduated from school with a silver medal, after which he received the specialty of an electrician in secondary circuits. Because of his peaceful Christian convictions, he served as an alternative service in the Balakovo boarding house for the elderly and disabled as a bath attendant. He has a letter of thanks for good service. Sergey worked as a janitor, and before his arrest, as a courier.

Sergey's grandmother was the first in Sergey's family to start getting acquainted with the Bible. Later, his mother became interested in the Holy Scriptures, and in 2012 he made a conscious decision to become a Christian. He was attracted by the kindness, sincerity, and love of those who lived according to biblical standards. The detailed prophecies in this ancient book convinced him that it was from God.

Sergey met his future wife Elizaveta when they were both teenagers, and they got married in 2018. Elizabeth shares her husband's religious views. She is engaged in photo retouching, loves to read. Sergey plays the guitar and is fond of learning foreign languages - he is fluent in English and a little French. Spouses love outdoor activities, meetings with friends and learning new things together.

Sergey and Yelizaveta experienced stress when law enforcement officers came to them with a search. This affected their health. Sergey's father, although he does not share his views, fundamentally disagrees with the criminal prosecution of his son, because he knows that he did not do anything illegal. Sergey's mother is hurt by the fact that because of the accusation of extremism, their son is suffering hardships.

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.
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