Vasiliyev Nikolay

Name: Vasiliyev Nikolay Vasiliyevich
Date of Birth: May 15, 1984
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 1 day in a temporary detention facility, 479 day in a pre-trial detention, 214 day in prison
Sentence: punishment in the form of 7 years of imprisonment with serving a sentence in a penal colony of general regime, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of a public religious organization for a period of 4 years, with restriction of liberty for 1 year 6 months
Currently held in: Correctional Colony No. 12 of the Republic of Mordovia
Address for correspondence: Vasiliyev Nikolay Vasiliyevich, born 1984, Correctional Colony No. 12 of the Republic of Mordovia, Ul. Novaya, d. 2, pos. Molochnitsa, Zubovo-Polyanskiy rayon, Republic of Mordovia, 431101

Letters of support can be sent by regular mail or through the «zonatelecom».

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

Programmer and musician Nikolay Vasiliyev was considered an extremist by Samara law enforcement officers only because of his faith in Jehovah God. They broke into his home with a search, threatened him with firearms and beat him, and then threw him behind bars.

Nikolay was born in 1984 in the village of Aisha (Tatarstan). He has an elder brother. Their mother works as a maid in a hotel. The father is no longer alive. From childhood, Nikolay was interested in computer technology. In high school, he took up playing the guitar and began to perform as part of a rock band. Nikolay received a gold medal for outstanding academic achievement.

After graduating from Kazan Federal University, Nikolay worked as a programmer at a medical college, and after moving to Samara, as a system administrator in a beauty salon. Before his arrest, he worked as a self-employed, automating the work of the websites of beauty salons and private medical organizations.

In his free time, Nikolay still loves to play the guitar. Another passion in the field of music for him is DJing. Nikolay also likes to organize concerts, trips with friends to nature and other recreational activities.

When Nikolay began to study the Bible, he learned from it that nature and people are the creations of God, and not the result of natural selection. This deeply affected him and prompted him to become a Christian in 2005.

The criminal prosecution deprived Nikolay of clients, and his reputation suffered. The believer's mother is worried about what happened and does not understand why her son was sent to a penal colony for 7 years.

Case History

In December 2021, at least 10 homes of Jehovah's Witnesses were searched in Samara. In one of the apartments, the security forces tortured and beat believers. Three men were arrested and taken into custody. An investigator of the FSB of Russia initiated a criminal case against Sergey Polosenko, Denis Kuzyanin, Nikolay Vasiliyev and Aram Danielyan, who was detained and sent to a pretrial detention center three weeks later, on charges of continuing the activity of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in the Samara Region. After about 300 days in detention, the believers were released from custody under a ban on certain actions. In April 2023, the case went to court. In January 2024, the prosecutor requested that the believers each be sentenced to 9 years in a penal colony. At the same hearing, the court sentenced them to 7 years imprisonment. In May, the court of appeal upheld the ruling.
Timeline
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