Zolotova Vera

Name: Zolotova Vera Ivanovna
Date of Birth: October 20, 1946
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility
Sentence: punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 2 years, with restriction of liberty for 6 months; The sentence of imprisonment shall be considered suspended with a probationary period of 3 years

Biography

Vera Zolotova was detained on August 19, 2018 in Yelizovo (Kamchatka region) on charges of extremist activities. After long court proceedings, the peaceful pensioner was sentenced to 2 years conditionally for extremism.

Vera was born in Yelizovo in 1946 in a big family with six children. As a child, she loved skating and skiing and often went hiking in the picturesque places of Kamchatka. She worked as a turner and accountant, now retired. Vera is happy to communicate with friends, loves to be in nature, grows indoor plants. Almost all her life lived in her native Elizovo, although two years lived in Belarus.

For a long time, Vera had been seeking God and got acquainted with different religions. From the Bible, she learned that God is just and loves people. She was glad that one can address him with own words, from heart.

In 1966, Vera married Yuriy. They had a son and a daughter. Her husband passed away, but during his lifetime he was impressed by the positive changes that occurred in his wife under the influence of the Bible.

Vera's adult daughter found out about her mother's arrest from the Internet and was terrified of this news. She has a hard time with her criminal prosecution and cannot understand how this meek and peaceful woman could have been convicted under the "extremist" article.

Case History

In 2018, in Yelizovo, Snezhana and Konstantin Bazhenov, both teachers, as well as widowed pensioner Vera Zolotova, were detained, their houses were searched, and a few days later they had to sign a recognizance agreement. The Investigative Committee equated the holding of joint meetings for worship to illegal activity. In September 2020, the court gave each of them a 2-year suspended sentence. The court of appeal upheld this decision, but the court of cassation returned the case for retrial to the territory court. In January 2022, it acquitted the believers, but the prosecutor’s office achieved that the verdict was overturned in the RF Supreme Court, and the case was returned to the appeal stage, and later the courts of cassation supported the verdict of a 2-year suspended sentence.
Timeline
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