Name: Shatalov Sergey Grigoriyevich
Date of Birth: September 23, 1969
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 376 day in a pre-trial detention, 897 day Under house arrest, 238 day in prison
Current restrictions: detention center
Sentence: punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 6 years 3 months with serving a sentence in a correctional colony of general regime, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public organizations for a period of 3 years, with restriction of liberty for a period of 1 year
Currently held in: Detention Center No.4 for Moscow
Address for correspondence: Shatalov Sergey Grigoriyevich, born 1969, Detention Center No.4 for Moscow, Ul. Vilyuyskaya, 4, Moscow, 127081

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Biography

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In November 2020, Sergey Shatalov, who was undergoing treatment in Moscow, was unexpectedly arrested and subsequently sentenced to a long prison term because of his faith.

Sergey was born in September 1969 in Stavropol. His father died when the boy was 10, and his mother raised him alone. In his youth he was fond of chess, played table tennis, volleyball, billiards.

Sergey studied at a nautical school, then served in the army. While serving in the Navy, he was injured and subsequently disabled, so he mastered a new specialty—a commodity expert. Sergey often had to change his occupation: he worked in the field of trade, as a stage machinist in a theater, a parquet operator, a supplier, a courier.

Sergey met his future wife Yelena immediately after the army. In 1995 they got married. Yelena has several professions, is fond of preparing wedding decoration.

The search, detention and house arrest radically changed the life of the spouses. Sergey had to interrupt the necessary treatment. He and his wife had to live separately for some time, as Yelena was a witness in a criminal case against her husband. Due to being in a pre-trial detention center after the verdict, Sergey could not say goodbye to his mother, who died in summer 2023.

Relatives of Sergey and Yelena are outraged and confused, because they know the couple only from the good side. They are sure that the accusations of extremism are groundless.

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.
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