Name: Maladyka Vladimir Ivanovich
Date of Birth: July 8, 1963
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, 550 day in a pre-trial detention, 286 day Under house arrest, 369 day in prison
Sentence: punishment in the form of 6 years of imprisonment with serving a sentence in a correctional colony of general regime, with deprivation of the right to engage in educational activities, activities related to speeches and publications in the media, placement of materials in information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet for a period of 7 years, with restriction of freedom for a period of 1 year
Currently held in: correctional colony No. 3 in the Tambov region
Address for correspondence: Maladyka Vladimir Ivanovich, born 1963, IK No. 3 in Tambov Region, ul. Tsentralnaya, 6, p. Zeleniy, Rasskazovskiy r-n, Tambov Region, Russia, 393265

Letters of support can be sent by regular mail or through the «FSIN-letter system». To pay for service with the card of a foreign bank use Prisonmail.

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

An exemplary family man, talented mechanic, peaceful Christian Vladimir Maladyka found himself behind bars after the raid on believers by security forces in October 2020. Then he spent six months in jail. Later, in October 2022, the court sentenced Vladimir to 6 years in prison.

Vladimir was born in July 1963 in the city of Yenakievo (Donetsk region) in the family of a miner. After graduating from school, he learned to be a cook. Later, he studied at the School of Naval Aviation Technicians in Kaliningrad, where he received a specialty "Technical Operation of Aircraft and Engines". He served as a technician in the village of Kacha (Sevastopol, Crimea).

Vladimir has always been fond of cars, especially body welding. Once, he assembled a full-fledged car from the old GAZ-21 body and registered it with the traffic police.

In 1986, Vladimir married Natalya, with whom they had been together for more than 30 years. In the early 1990s, the family faced difficulties. During this period, his brother and his wife came to him and offered to find out what was written in the Bible. After a long in-depth study of the Holy Scriptures, the family decided to become Christians and live by biblical standards.

People around know Vladimir as a hospitable and sympathetic person, always ready to help. However, the authorities considered him a criminal only because of his convictions.

Case History

In October 2020, security forces conducted searches of believers in Sevastopol. The day before, the FSB initiated a criminal case against Vladimir Maladyka, Yevgeniy Zhukov and Vladimir Sakada. They were accused of organizing the activities of an extremist organization only because of their faith in Jehovah God. The charges were based on video recordings of four worship services of Jehovah’s Witnesses made by FSB agents. The believers spent a day in a temporary detention facility, then the court sent them to a pre-trial detention center. In April 2021, the case went to trial. During the hearings, FSB officer Dmitriy Shevchenko, who conducted surveillance of the believers, stated that no signs of extremism or facts of inciting religious hatred were identified in their actions. During the investigation and trial each men spent more than a year and four months in a pre-trial detention center and more than eight months under house arrest. In October 2022, the court sentenced them to six years in prison in a general regime colony. An appeal upheld the decision a year later.