Zakaryan Vardan

Name: Zakaryan Vardan Pegatosovich
Date of Birth: June 12, 1971
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1.1)
Time spent in prison: 4 day in a temporary detention facility, 376 day in a pre-trial detention, 893 day Under house arrest, 237 day in prison
Sentence: punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 4 years and 3 months with serving the sentence in a correctional colony of general regime
Currently held in: Correctional Colony No. 4 of the Tver Region
Address for correspondence: Zakaryan Vardan Pegatosovich, born 1971, Correctional Colony No. 4 of the Tver Region, ul. Staritskaya, 79, Torzhok, Tver Region, 172011

Letters of support can be sent by regular mail or through the «FSIN-letter system». To pay for service with the card of a foreign bank use Prisonmail.

Parcels and parcels should not be sent because of the limit on their number per year.

Note: discussing topics related to criminal prosecution is not allowed in letters; languages other than Russian will not pass.

Biography

In November 2020, security forces broke into the apartments of peaceful Muscovites with searches. Vardan Zakaryan was seriously injured during the raid. From a blow to the head with a butt, he received a head injury and was hospitalized.

Vardan Zakaryan was born in 1971 in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan. He is the eldest of three brothers. As a child, he was engaged in sambo. Vardan also liked to help his grandmother take care of the garden. Later, it helped him in his life—he worked as a florist for more than 12 years and had his own small flower business.

In 1991, when Vardan was already living in Russia, he was the first of his family to associate with Jehovah's Witnesses and became interested in Bible teachings. He began to treat the Bible in a special way when he read it in Armenian and became convinced that the name of God, Jehovah, occurs there more than 7000 times. Later, his mother joined him in the study of the Holy Scriptures.

In 2000, Vardan got married. The couple raised two children. At the time of the search, their daughter was studying at the university, and their son was in high school. Vardan is a tailor by profession, he has been working in an atelier for the last 30 years.

Vardan's relatives were shocked by the brutality of the security forces during the search. They wonder why the court considered him a dangerous criminal and sentenced him to 4 years in prison only because of his faith. While Vardan is in prison, his wife has to work for two to provide for the family.

Case History

In November 2020, a big special operation took place in Moscow—22 searches in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Vardan Zakaryan was hospitalized due to injuries inflicted by the security forces. He, as well as Vitaliy Komarov, Yuriy Chernyshev, Ivan Tchaikovskiy and Sergey Shatalov were placed in an isolation ward at 38 Petrovka Street. The believers were accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization, and Zakaryan was accused of being involved in it. It is noteworthy that Tchaikovskiy in 2010, through the ECHR, obtained compensation for the violation of his rights due to the illegal liquidation of the Moscow community of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the winter of 2022, the case went to court. The accusation was based on the testimony of the FSB agent “Makarov”, who feigned an interest in the Bible. In March 2023, the court sentenced Tchaikovsky, Komarov, Chernyshev and Shatalov to 6 years and 3 months in prison, and Zakaryan to 4 years and 3 months in prison. The appeal upheld this decision in April 2024.
Timeline
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