Malyanova Svetlana

Name: Malyanova Svetlana Sergeevna
Date of Birth: May 11, 1996
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 1 day in a temporary detention facility
Sentence: punishment in the form of a fine in the amount of 545,000 rubles with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to participation in the work of public religious organizations for a period of 2 years and 11 months

Biography

Svetlana Malyanova, a young teacher from Nizhny Novgorod, like her father, Sergey Malyanov , became a defendant in one of the many criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

Svetlana was born in 1996 in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of an athlete and a teacher of foreign languages. Since childhood, she loved to read, wrote poetry and sang in a choir. The girl followed in the footsteps of her mother and after graduating from the institute, began teaching English and French. Svetlana has always lived in Nizhny Novgorod. In her free time, she goes in for sports and creativity. Recently, she has found a new hobby - playing the guitar.

Like her father, Svetlana was personally convinced that the Bible is trustworthy. The logic and harmony of this book, as well as fulfilling prophecies, did not leave the girl indifferent. She was also impressed by the worldwide preaching activity of modern Christians. At the age of 20, Svetlana decided to dedicate her life to God.

During the investigation and trials, pleasant changes also happened in Svetlana's personal life—she married Aleksandr. His mother Galina, was given a 6-year suspended sentence by the court in May 2022 because of her faith in Jehovah God.

Unfair criminal prosecution has disrupted the normal way of life for the whole family. Svetlana's mother and grandmother are very worried and do not understand how it is possible to treat their relatives – peaceful, law-abiding people – so unfairly.

Case History

In July 2019, mass searches were carried out in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nizhny Novgorod. After that, several believers became defendants in criminal cases under an article for extremism. One of them was filed against Sergey Konshin, Sergey Malyanov and his daughter, Svetlana. The believers spent 24 hours in a temporary holding facility. Even before these events, the officers were listening in on Malyanov’s telephone conversations. Later, another defendant appeared in the case - Roman Zhivolupov. The believers were added to the Rosfinmonitoring list and they had to sign a recognizance agreement. In February 2022, the case went to court. The charges are based on a video recording of an event. The investigation considered the party a continuation of the activity of a liquidated religious organization. In April 2023, these Nizhny Novgorod residents were sentenced to fines ranging from 450,000 to 700,000 rubles. Later, the court of appeal upheld the guilty verdict, toughening the additional part of the punishment – not to hold any leading positions in religious and public organizations for 2 years and 11 months.
Timeline
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