Baranov Yegor

Updated: April 19, 2024
Name: Baranov Yegor Andreyevich
Date of Birth: March 21, 2001
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1.1), 282.2 (2)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 175 day in a pre-trial detention
Current restrictions: Suspended sentence
Sentence: punishment in the form of 4 years 8 months of imprisonment, with restriction of liberty for a term of 1 year 3 months, punishment in the form of imprisonment shall be considered conditional with a probationary period of 2 years

Biography

One of the youngest Jehovah's Witnesses persecuted for their faith in Russia, Yegor Baranov, spent six months in prison. For some time, the young man was deprived of the support of family and friends: he was not given visits with his mother and letters of support that came to him from different countries.

Yegor was born in March 2001 in Transbaikalia in the urban-type village of Olovyannaya (Chita region) in a large family. He has two elder brothers. His father died in 2013.

Already at the age of 4, Yegor read poetry and stories, and a little later he fell in love with books about nature and animals. He was interested in dinosaurs, dreamed of becoming an archaeologist.

Before the criminal prosecution, Yegor was a 2nd year student at the Vyazemsky Forestry—Technical School named after N. V. Usenko.

In the late 1990s, Yegor's mother became Jehovah's Witness, and two years later her grandmother joined her. From childhood, the boy was interested in spiritual questions: will God eliminate all evil, and most importantly, death? He was especially touched by the biblical promise of the resurrection of the dead and the possibility of seeing his father again in the future. This prompted him to become a Christian.

In his free time, Yegor plays the synthesizer, burns wood, writes poetry. He tries to master different types of construction tools, as he has to take care of a private house and make repairs himself. Another hobby is cooking.

When Yegor ended up in jail, his mother was left without the support of her son. Yegor himself has heart problems.

Relatives who do not share Yegor's religious convictions do not understand why a calm and affable young man, ready to lend a helping hand at any moment, was recognized as an extremist. Yegor's uncle, Sergey Kuznetsov, was also convicted on similar charges.

Case History

Yen Sen Li became a victim of religious repression in May 2020. The old age of the believer did not deter the security forces from displaying inhumane treatment: during the search, the elderly Jehovah’s Witness was hit in the stomach and his arms were twisted behind his back; afterward, he was kept for 13 hours in the FSB Directorate building in the Khabarovsk Territory. On the same day, student Yegor Baranov was detained. The court sent him to a pre-trial detention center, where he was kept for six months. While in detention, Baranov was deprived of the right to send and receive letters. Later on, the court seized Li’s car. In January 2021, the case went to trial. A year later, Yen Sen Li died of covid, never having restored his good name. In April 2022, the prosecutor requested six years in a penal colony for Yegor Baranov. In June 2022, the court gave the believer a five-year suspended sentence, and an appeal reduced this term to four and a half years.
Timeline