Solntseva Oksana

Name: Solntseva Oksana Mikhailovna
Date of Birth: August 17, 1966
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Current restrictions: suspended sentence
Sentence: punishment in the form of 3 years of imprisonment, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to participation in the work of public religious organizations and associations for a term of 3 years, with restriction of liberty for a term of 10 months, a sentence of imprisonment shall be considered suspended with a probationary period of 2 years

Biography

On March 20, 2019, searches and interrogations of citizens in connection with their Christian beliefs resumed in Magadan. Spouses Mikhail and Oksana Solntsev became new defendants in a criminal case against believers in Magadan, who by this time had already become 13. The investigation believes that they participated in worship services. What do we know about Oksana?

Oksana was born in 1966 in Yenakievo, Donetsk region of Ukraine. When she was 6 years old, the whole family moved to the Magadan region, the village of Ust-Taskan, where Oksana spent her childhood. From a young age, she admired the beauty of nature, loved to paint landscapes and people. Her other passion was the exact sciences, which eventually led her to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Magadan Pedagogical Institute. After graduating from it, she worked as a programmer in various institutions, including the Department of Internal Affairs of the Magadan Region. While studying at the institute, she met her future husband Mikhail.

Back in the early 1990s, Oksana was surprised to learn from the Bible that God had conceived a paradise on Earth and did not torment people in hell. Since then, the Bible has been the main guide for her life. Little did she know that one day it would lead her to the dock. According to Oksana, the criminal prosecution has become a great stress for her entire family and deprived her of the opportunity to take care of her sick parents.

Case History

After a series of searches in Magadan in May 2018, Konstantin Petrov, Yevgeniy Zyablov and Sergey Yerkin were placed in a pretrial detention center. On the same day in Khabarovsk, the home of Ivan Puyda was searched. He was arrested and taken 1,600 km to a pretrial detention center in Magadan. The believers spent 2 to 4 months behind bars, and then ended up under house arrest. In March 2019, the FSB conducted another series of searches. The number of defendants in the case has reached 13, including 6 women and elderly. The investigator deemed holding peaceful meetings for worship as organizing, participating in and financing the activity of an extremist organization. In almost 4 years of investigation, the case materials against the 13 believers has grown to 66 volumes. The case went to court in March 2022. At the hearings, it became clear that the case was based on the testimony of a secret witness – an FSB informant who made covert recordings of peaceful meetings for worship. In March 2024, the believers were given suspended sentences ranging from 3 to 7 years, and the court of appeal later upheld this verdict.
Timeline
Back to top