Shepel Viola

Name: Shepel Viola Alexandrovna
Date of Birth: July 19, 1976
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 3 months of imprisonment, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public organizations for a period of 2 years, with restriction of liberty for a period of 1 year, punishment in the form of imprisonment shall be considered suspended with a probationary period of 2 years

Biography

In February 2019, one of the most massive and inhumane operations against believers took place in Surgut and several other cities of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. 7 people reported torture, 3 people were in custody for a long time, and the total number of defendants in criminal cases exceeded 20. One of them is Viola Shepel.

Viola was born in 1976 in the city of Stepnogorsk (Kazakhstan). She has a brother. Their father is an engineer, their mother is a computer operator of an instrument factory. Viola herself chose the medical path and graduated from the Tomsk Basic Medical College. She worked for 8 years in the oncology department of the clinic, and recently she has been working as a district nurse in the pediatric department.

When Viola was 3 years old, her family moved to Tomsk, Russia. In 2003, she got married and moved in with her husband in Surgut. Around the same time, she found in the Bible reasonable answers to her questions about the existence of God, the meaning of life, and relationships between people.

Viola and her husband Pavel have a daughter. The whole family loves to be in nature and travel, often organize holidays for friends.

Case History

In February 2019, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case against 18 men and 1 woman from Surgut (among them was a person mistaken for one of Jehovah’s Witnesses). Their homes were searched. During the interrogations, 7 believers were subjected to violence. Artur Severinchik was sent to a pretrial detention center for 29 days, while Yevgeniy Fedin and Sergey Loginov — for 56 days. Timofey Zhukov was unlawfully placed in a psychiatric hospital for 14 days. The believers filed complaints about the use of torture with the Investigative Committee, the ECHR and the Human Rights Ombudsman; a press conference was held with the participation of human rights activists, but none of the law enforcement officers was brought to justice. In October 2021, the case materials went to court. Two years later, the court gave all of the believers suspended sentences ranging from 4 to 7 years. In February 2025, the court of appeal upheld this decision.
Timeline
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