Updated: March 28, 2024
Name: Vospitanyuk Aleksandr Sergeyevich
Date of Birth: November 18, 1979
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
Sentence: punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 2 years with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to the placement of appeals and other materials in public information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, for a term of 3 years, with restriction of liberty for a term of 6 months; The sentence of imprisonment shall be considered suspended with a probationary period of 2 years

Biography

On June 3, 2021, the court sentenced Alexandr Vospitanyuk, the father of three young children, to 2 years of probation due to his faith in Jehovah God.

Alexandr was born in November 1979 in the city of Margilan (Uzbekistan). He has 2  elder brothers. The parents are already retired. His father worked as a machine operator, and his mother was a doctor.

As a child, Alexandr was fond of karate-do and cycling. After school, he mastered the profession of an electric and gas welder. His labor activity is connected with metal welding and roofing works.

While studying the Bible, Alexandr attended a major worship service of Jehovah's Witnesses with 2,000 believers, prompting him to devote more time to reading the Holy Scriptures. In 2002, 2 years after the family moved to the Kursk region, he embarked on the Christian path.

Alexandr met his future wife Yulia in 2007 in Kursk. They got married 2 years later. The couple are raising three children: the eldest daughter graduated from the 1st grade, the middle son is preparing for school, and the youngest daughter was born a week before the verdict. In his free time, Alexandr likes to work in the garden at the dacha.

Searches and interrogations affected the health of the spouses. All relatives are shocked that a large family father was convicted for believing in God.

Case History

In October 2019, the FSB initiated a criminal case against Andrey Andreyev, Artem Bagratyan and his wife Alevtina. Andreyev was accused of organizing the activity of an extremist organization, while the others were accused of participating in it. They were placed in a detention center. Later, another believer, Andrey Ryshkov, was arrested. At the end of 2020, Alevtina Bagratyan was transferred to house arrest. Artem Bagratyan suffers from diabetes and other chronic diseases; his condition required inpatient treatment, which he was denied by the management of the detention center. In June 2021, the court sentenced: Andrey Andreyev to 4.5 years in a penal colony, Andrey Ryshkov - 3 years in a penal colony, Artem Bagratyan - 2.5 years in a penal colony and his wife, Alevtina - 2 years in a penal colony. Aleksandr Vospitanyuk was given a 2-year suspended sentence. In January 2022, the court of appeal, and a year later, the court of cassation, upheld this decision. All of the believers have already served their terms.