Name: Buryi Ilia Ivanovich
Date of Birth: March 15, 1992
Current status: defendant
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Current restrictions: recognizance agreement

Biography

In April 2022, the father of his minor daughter, Ilia Buryi, a resident of Yoshkar-Ola, became a defendant in a criminal case for his belief in Jehovah God. Worries about this shattered the health of both parents, and in September 2023, Ilia's mother died.

Ilia was born in March 1992 in Nizhny Novgorod. As a child, he loved skating, playing football and volleyball. At various times, in addition to his hometown, he lived in St. Petersburg and Yoshkar-Ola.

After school, Ilia studied to be an electrician for the repair and maintenance of equipment. At first, he worked by profession, then he was engaged in cleaning, worked at a car wash, worked at a factory as an operator of machine tools with program control, and then again engaged in electrical installation.

Parents from childhood instilled in Ilia a love for the Bible and God. Spending time in nature, they drew his attention to how beautiful and amazingly everything is created. In 2004, the young man decided to take the Christian path on his own.

In 2018, Ilia married Anna, the sister of his close friend. Anna is a hairdresser and is fond of dancing. Ilia still loves sports games, and is also engaged in farming. In 2022, the couple had a daughter.

Relatives and friends worry about the spouses and are shocked by the unfair accusation.

Case History

In April 2022, the FSB initiated a criminal case against Jehovah’s Witnesses from Yoshkar-Ola. Searches were carried out at nine addresses; law enforcement officers used force against one of the believers, Yevgeny Plotnikov. He was arrested and subsequently placed in a detention center. In August 2022, Yevgeny was placed under house arrest, and in October he was placed under a ban on certain activities. From December of the same year, the FSB investigator began making other residents of the city defendants – Sergey Kulikov and his son Aleksey, Eduard Kapitonov and his son Ilya, Igor Alekseyev, Vladimir Usenko and Denis Petrov. The investigator regarded practicing their faith as extremist actions. The believers were made to sign a recognizance agreement. The case went to court in October 2024.
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