Photo: Alexander Ivshin

Photo: Alexander Ivshin

Photo: Alexander Ivshin

Inside Penal Colonies and Detention Centers

While Waiting for an Appeal Against the Harsh Sentence, Aleksandr Ivshin Visited Five Pre-Trial Detention Centers in 1.5 Months and Fell Seriously Ill

Krasnodar Territory

Aleksandr Ivshin, 63, is awaiting an appeal against the harsh sentence for his faith. The hearing will be held by conference call from the SIZO of the city of Syzran (Samara region) on April 15, 2021. Within 2 weeks, the pensioner was transported from one pre-trial detention center to another in five regions of Russia. On the way, he fell seriously ill.

Aleksandr was kept in basements of pre-trial detention centers. He spent a day in Novorossiysk, and then 4 days each in Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd and Saratov. In the Krasnodar Territory, the employees of the pre-trial detention center made holes in Aleksandr's dishes, he had only a spoon left.

After becoming infected with the coronavirus, the elderly believer suffered the disease very hard: he fell and lost consciousness multiple times, and he lost his sense of smell, which has not yet recovered. He was not provided medical care. Aleksandr was very weak, so when he was transferred to the next jail, he could only carry a mattress. His personal belongings had to be distributed among the prisoners.

The case of Ivshin in Kholmskaya

Case History
In April 2020, the FSB opened a case against Alexander Ivshin, an engineer with two higher educations and a caring grandfather of 8 grandchildren. According to investigators, the believer organized a video link of worship in the neighboring town of Abinsk with the joint singing of biblical songs. For this he was charged under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At the height of the pandemic, a series of searches were carried out in the homes of believers in the villages of Kholmskaya and Pavlovskaya. After the interrogation, investigator Komissarov took Ivshin on his own recognizance. Against the background of the stress experienced, the 62-year-old believer and his wife had a hypertensive crisis. In August 2020, Ivshin’s car was seized “to ensure the execution of a possible sentence.” By the end of 2020, the case was referred to the Abinsk District Court of the Krasnodar Territory for consideration by Judge Aleksandr Kholoshin, who sentenced the believer to 7.5 years in prison. In the pre-trial detention center, the believer fell ill with covid. On April 15, 2021, the Krasnodar Regional Court upheld the verdict. In June 2021, the believer was transferred to a colony in the city of Rostov-on-Don.
Timeline

Persons in case

Ivshin
Aleksandr

Criminal case

Region:
Krasnodar Territory
Locality:
Kholmskaya
Suspected of:
"Organized... the activities of the extremist organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, expressed in the repeated conduct on the territory of the Abinsk district of the Krasnodar Territory ... religious speeches and services, as well as in the study of religious literature ... singing Bible songs together" (from the decision to prosecute)
Court case number:
12007030001000052
Initiated:
April 23, 2020
Current case stage:
The verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Krasnodar Territory Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-26/2021 (1-331/2020)
Court:
Абинский районный суд Краснодарского края
Case History