Ilya Kapitonov

Name: Kapitonov Ilya Eduardovich

Date of Birth: February 15, 2002

Current status: convicted person

Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)

Sentence: Punishment in the form of a fine in the amount of 600,000 rubles

Biography

Ilya Kapitonov, being a third-year student at the Faculty of Law, unexpectedly became a defendant in a criminal case for his faith along with his father Eduard.

Ilya was born in February 2002 in the city of Yoshkar-Ola (Mari El). He has an older sister Ksenia. Their mother is a storekeeper at a factory, their father is a driver with 40 years of experience, a veteran of labor.

From childhood, Ilya liked chess, as well as volleyball and basketball; he played football for 8 years. The young man still loves sports. On warm evenings he runs along the forest. “Running is a hobby for me, thanks to which I can recover after a busy day,” said Ilya. After school, the young man enrolled in university. From the first year he has been working as a tutor in social theory.

The Kapitonov family was introduced to Bible teachings in 1996. The mother tried to instill in her children love for the Creator. From childhood, Ilya loved watching scientific and educational films and admired the beauty of the world around him. He was convinced that this amazing variety could not have appeared by chance. Over time, all family members became Jehovah's Witnesses.

The criminal prosecution unsettled the believer and caused anxiety. His mother and sister, as well as relatives who do not share the religious views of the Kapitonovs, are worried about Eduard and Ilya.

Case History

In April 2022, the FSB initiated a criminal case against Jehovah’s Witnesses from Yoshkar-Ola. Searches were conducted at nine addresses, and law enforcement officers used force against one of the believers, Yevgeniy Plotnikov. He was detained and subsequently placed in a pretrial detention center. In August 2022, Yevgeniy was transferred to house arrest, and in October, he was placed under a ban on certain actions. In December of the same year, the FSB investigator began charging other residents of the city: Sergey Kulikov and his son Aleksey, Eduard Kapitonov and his son Ilya, Igor Alekseyev, Vladimir Usenko, Denis Petrov, Ilya Buryi and Sergey Naymushin. The investigator regarded practicing their faith as actions of an extremist nature and placed them under a recognizance agreement. In October 2024, the case went to court, 3 months later the prosecutor requested 9 years in a penal colony for the believers, and in February of the same year, the court sentenced them to fines: Plotnikov 500,000 rubles, and the rest 600,000 rubles.

Timeline