Updated: March 28, 2024
Name: Ivshin Aleksandr Yevgeniyevich
Date of Birth: August 21, 1957
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 64 day in a pre-trial detention, 1079 day in prison
Sentence: punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 7 years 6 months with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to the organization and participation in public associations, groups for a term of 5 years and with restriction of liberty for a term of 1 year with serving a sentence of imprisonment in a correctional colony of general regime
Currently held in: Penal Colony No. 10 in Rostov Region
Address for correspondence: Ivshin Aleksandr Yevgeniyevich, born 1957, IK No. 10 in Rostov Region, per. Kazachiy, 22, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 344033

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Biography

A pensioner from the village of Kholmskaya, Alexandr Ivshin, faced criminal prosecution in April 2020: a criminal case was opened against him for believing in Jehovah God. After the search and interrogation of law enforcement officers, Alexandr and his wife suffered a hypertensive crisis.

Alexandr was born in August 1957 in Katav-Ivanovsk (Chelyabinsk region). Later he moved to the Kuban, to the village of Kholmskaya, where he still lives.

Alexandr has two older brothers and a younger sister. As a child, he loved to organize hiking and sporting events. After school he graduated from the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute. Later he graduated from the Voronezh Forestry Institute.

Alexandr worked as a turner, assembler of radio equipment, foreman of a forging and production workshop. Having moved to the Krasnodar Territory, he got a job as a lumberjack. Before retirement he worked as chief engineer, industrial safety engineer. Now he is on a well-deserved rest. Likes to travel with his family through the territory of the former USSR, is engaged in floriculture.

Alexandr met his future wife Galina in 1974, and four years later the couple got married. Galina worked as a kindergarten teacher and is now retired. The spouses help in raising 8 grandchildren.

In the 90s, a serious illness made Alexandr think about the meaning of life. Together with his brother, they read three of the four Gospels in one night. In 1995, Alexandr met those who, with the help of the Bible, helped him get answers to deep life questions. This is how Alexandr became a Christian. Peaceful views prompted him to refuse to participate in military training and take up arms.

After searches and interrogations in quarantine due to COVID-19, the family faced difficulties in resolving medical and domestic issues. “I feel humiliated,” the believer shared. - All the time waiting for something bad. The court seized Alexandr's car, considering that it was necessary to ensure the execution of a possible sentence.

Relatives and friends are worried about the married couple. They were shocked that Alexandr was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, despite his age and state of health. While awaiting an appeal against the verdict, the believer visited five pre-trial detention centers in a month and a half and fell seriously ill. On April 15, 2021, an appeal in Krasnodar upheld the verdict.

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.