Chagan Aleksandr

Updated: April 26, 2024
Name: Chagan Aleksandr Vladimirovich
Date of Birth: August 6, 1971
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, 57 day in a pre-trial detention
Current restrictions: Detention center
Sentence: punishment in the form of 8 years of imprisonment with serving in a penal colony of general regime, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to participation in the work of religious organizations for a term of 3 years and restriction of liberty for a term of 1 year
Currently held in: Detention Center No. 4 in Samara Region
Address for correspondence: Chagan Aleksandr Vladimirovich, born 1971, SIZO No. 4 Samara Region, sh. Khryashchevskoe, vld. 3, g. Tolyatti, Russia, 445043

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

Note: discussing topics related to criminal prosecution is not allowed in letters; languages other than Russian will not pass.

Biography

Since the beginning of spring 2022, Aleksandr and Yekaterina Chagan's home has been searched twice. Aleksandr was detained and sent to jail on suspicion of extremism.

Aleksandr Chagan was born in 1971 in Dnepropetrovsk (then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). A year later, the family moved to Tolyatti. The boy's mother died when he was only 11 years old, and his father raised two sons alone. After a while, the father remarried and the couple had another son.

Aleksandr recalls that the family got along well. As a child, he enjoyed wrestling and boxing. The father set up a sport's area with a horizontal bar in the home and also taught the children to play chess. He worked hard to ensure that his sons grew up to be well-rounded people.

After the eighth grade Aleksandr went to a vocational school and became an automotive mechanic. After graduating with honors, he continued his studies at college but did not graduate; he left to serve in the army. When the young man returned, he went to a university to study humanities. Later, Aleksandr learned to work with computers and began to work in that field.

Alexander loves sports, just as he did in childhood.

In the late 1990s, Aleksandr often thought about the meaning of life, because he did not find satisfaction either in money or in his career. At the age of 30, he met Jehovah's Witnesses. From them, he first learned that the Bible does not contradict science and that the Scriptures contain information about death and about the Creator's purpose for mankind. Aleksandr concluded that the Bible was the Word of God and decided to become a follower of Christ.

In 2008 Aleksandr married Yekaterina. She shares her husband's beliefs. Yekaterina loves sewing and drawing.

Together, the couple raised Yekaterina's daughter, Regina. In their free time, the family likes to take walks and travel together. Aleksandr also has a daughter from his first marriage.

“The criminal prosecution came as a surprise to us, but at that time we felt the love of fellow believers, and we saw God fulfill his promise: “I will never leav

Case History

The first search in the family of Aleksandr and Yekaterina Chagan took place in March 2022. Six months later, in September, law enforcement officers again invaded their house, squeezing out the window. They put the household on the floor and handcuffed the head of the family, and then conducted a search. At night, Aleksandr was taken for interrogation to the Investigative Committee, after which he was sent to the temporary detention facility. The court released him on his own recognizance. On the same day, Aleksandr became a defendant in a criminal case—he was accused of organizing the activities of an extremist community. In July 2023, the case went to court. A secret witness and experts testified at the trial, whose conclusions, according to the defense, were biased, unscientific and unfounded. In March 2024, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Timeline