Updated: March 28, 2024
Name: Oreshkov Aleksey Borisovich
Date of Birth: June 21, 1971
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 210 day in a pre-trial detention, 30 day Under house arrest
Current restrictions: Suspended sentence
Sentence: punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 3 years with restriction of liberty for a term of 10 months; The main punishment in the form of imprisonment is considered conditional, setting him a probationary period of 3 years

Biography

On July 16 and 17, 2019, mass searches and detentions of civilians on the basis of religion took place in the Nizhny Novgorod region. At least 11 people were detained. Two believers were thrown into jail for talking about religious topics, which law enforcement agencies interpret as extremism. What do we know about one of them, Alexei Oreshkov?

Alexey was born in 1971 in Pavlov. As a child, he was fond of table tennis. Later he graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Music College named after M. A. Balakirev in the class of wind instruments. He also worked in the internal affairs bodies (the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs for the Nizhny Novgorod Region). Now he is a seniority pensioner. Before his arrest, he took care of his elderly mother for several years, who needs constant care. He has an adult son and a young granddaughter.

Since 2011, Aleksey has been a committed Christian. His family and friends are very perplexed by his arrest on charges of extremism. In their opinion, his lifestyle is completely at odds with what he is accused of.

Case History

In July 2019, mass searches and detentions of Jehovah’s Witnesses took place in Nizhny Novgorod and the city of Pavlovo. The Federal Security Service of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region initiated a criminal case on the suspicion that unidentified persons were participating in extremist activity — this is how the investigation classified the worship of believers. The security forces detained Aleksey Oreshkov and Aleksandr Vavilov and placed them in pretrial detention for 211 and 241 days, respectively. Later, the FSB added Aleksandr Rakovskiy to the same case as a defendant. In January 2021, the case went to court. Despite fabricated testimonies in the case and the fact that there were no victims, in October 2021 the court imposed a 3-year suspended sentence on the peaceful believers. In January 2022, the regional court, and in December the cassation court, left this sentence unchanged.