Rabota Valeriy

Name: Rabota Valeriy Leonidovich
Date of Birth: October 6, 1961
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, 116 day in a pre-trial detention, 100 day Under house arrest
Current restrictions: suspended sentence
Sentence: The sentence is 5 years of imprisonment, with restriction of liberty for a term of 1 year 2 months, the sentence of imprisonment is considered suspended with a probationary period of 3 years

Biography

Valeriy Rabota ended up in a pre-trial detention center after searches were carried out at the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Khabarovsk Territory in the spring of 2022. During the months spent in detention, the believer's chronic illnesses worsened, and he later suffered a stroke while under house arrest.

Valeriy was born in October 1961 in the city of Tatarbunary (Ukraine). He has a younger half-sister thru his mother. His parents did subsistence farming and beekeeping. The stepfather passed away in 2008, and the mother passed away from Covid in the summer of 2021.

Valeriy grew up as an active child: he played soccer on the youth team, did track and field, and later kettlebell lifting and sports shooting, and took part in combined events.

After school, Valeriy entered the Odessa Cultural and Educational College, but did not finish his studies because he was drafted into the army in his third year. Then he graduated from the school for ensign with a degree in engineer in anti-explosives and served in this rank for ten years.

Valeriy moved several times. He lived in the cities like Odessa and Moscow and served in Germany and a city of Khabarovsk. After leaving the army, he worked as an individual entrepreneur, a taxi driver, and more recently as a freight deliverer.

Valeriy's hobby is fishing. Since he lives by the river, he enjoys motorboating with family and friends. In addition, he likes to work in the garden, do repair work, and also play the button accordion and synthesizer.

Since childhood, Valeriy had questions about the meaning of life. After learning that God has a personal name, he studied the Bible more deeply. In 1995, he became a Christian. His religious views were shared by his stepfather and mother, who introduced him to the Holy Scriptures.

Valeriy has three adult children from his first marriage. He met his wife Elvira in 2018 and they got married the same year. Elvira is an expert in the repair and tailoring of outerwear and the restoration of fur coats. She enjoys fishing, loves to spend time in nature and to go camping. Elvira, like Valeriy, was interested in spiritual things since childhood. In 1994 she began to study the Bible, and in 1996 she became a Christian.

Valeriy's relatives know him as a sympathetic, respectable person and do not understand how faith in God could become a reason for criminal prosecution.

Case History

In March 2022, the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under an article for extremism against Valeriy Rabota from the village of Knyaze-Volkonskoye. His house was searched, after which he was taken for interrogation and placed in a temporary detention facility, 2 days later he ended up in a pretrial detention center for “unwillingness to cooperate” — to incriminate himself and fellow believers. In June 2022, despite the investigator’s demand to extend Valeriy’s detention, the judge eased the preventive measure, placing the believer under house arrest. He suffered a stroke soon after. In March 2023, the case went to court, and in November, the prosecutor requested that the believer be sent to a penal colony for 6 years. A month later, the judge recused herself and the case was sent for a new trial. In July 2024, Valeriy was given a 6-year suspended sentence. In September, the court of appeal reduced the sentence to 5 years.
Timeline
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