Name: Vyrezkova Svetlana Vitaliyevna
Date of Birth: July 28, 1971
Current status: defendant
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility

Biography

The life of Svetlana Vyrezkova from the town of Gryazi changed dramatically when representatives of the authorities knocked on her door early in the morning. After 6 hours of search and 13 hours in the Investigative Committee, the believer was detained and spent two days in the isolation ward. Later she was released on recognizance agreement. In fact, the woman is accused of believing in Jehovah God.

Svetlana was born in 1971 in sunny Turkmenistan. Her happy, carefree childhood passed there. When the girl was 16 years old, the family moved to Siberia, to the city of Ust-Ilimsk. It was difficult for Svetlana to get used to the local harsh climate. After graduating from school, the girl went to study in Khabarovsk.

Svetlana got married at the age of 19. She has been married for 31 years. Together with her husband, they raised two daughters. In 2005, the family left Siberia, moving to the city of Gryazi. Spouses love to receive guests, they have a lot of friends.

From childhood, Svetlana's mother tried to give her daughter a religious upbringing, encouraging her to repeat the prayer "Our Father". But the girl only had even more questions, to which she could not find answers. In 1998, she met Jehovah's Witnesses, who helped her find answers in the Bible to questions that had troubled her since childhood. From that moment on, she firmly decided to live according to Christian principles. Svetlana's husband does not share her faith, but always shows great respect for her.

On November 16, 2020, there was a knock on the door: Svetlana's husband immediately realized that the security forces had come for his wife. The believer says that she managed to stay calm, but her husband, on the contrary, had to get nervous. Svetlana says that despite the unfair criminal prosecution, she tries to stay firm, maintains a positive attitude and believes that God will never leave her.

Case History

In November 2020, officers of the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on extremism, and the next day, accompanied by riot police, conducted a series of searches at 9 addresses of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the town of Gryazi. Five peaceful believers, including two pensioners, were detained and sent to a temporary detention facility. Natalia Perekatiy, Tatyana Morlang and Svetlana Vyrezkova were released 2 days later on their own recognizance, and Yevgeny Reshetnikov and Sergey Kretov were sent to a pre-trial detention center. In June 2021, two more believers were detained as part of the same criminal case: Aleksandr Popras and Valeriy Khmil. No preventive measure was chosen against Popras, and Khmil was placed under house arrest for 57 days. Kretov and Reshetnikov spent about 8 months in a pre-trial detention center and 4 months under house arrest. In November 2023, the court began considering the case.
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