Biography
In July 2018, law enforcement officers, accompanied by riot police, using crowbars, broke into Sergey Rayman's apartment at gunpoint. The young man learned that a criminal case had been opened against him for his faith, he was sent to a pre-trial detention center for 2 months. Court reduced this term to 3 years suspended.
Sergey was born in October 1996 in the city of Kineshma (Ivanovo region). As a child, he was fond of skiing. After school, he entered a construction college, became a specialist in the field of interior decoration. His hobby is video filming. In addition, he loves to cook unusual food for family and friends. Sergey took over love and respect for the Bible from his grandmother.
After the investigation, the return of the case to the prosecutor and court proceedings in October 2020, Sergey was sentenced to 8 years of suspended sentence, but on February 26, 2021, the Kostroma Regional
The criminal prosecution had a profound effect on the believer's emotional and physical well-being, but he endured all the hardships. "I am not ashamed of my convictions, which helped me become a worthy person," Sergey said in his final plea to the court.
Case History
In July 2018, the life of young spouses Sergey and Valeria Rayman was divided into “before” and “after”. They were accused of extremism under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for participating in worship services. The Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Kostroma Region investigated the case for 1.5 years. During this time, the couple survived imprisonment in solitary confinement, a ban on correspondence and reading the Bible, house arrest, and a restriction on communication even with each other. In August 2019, the court began considering their case, but 1.5 months later returned it to the prosecutor for the unfounded accusation. After re-examining the case, the court sentenced Sergey and Valeriya to 8 and 7 years of probation, respectively. In February 2021, the regional court reduced the terms to 3 and 2 years, but the cassation returned the case to the appeal stage. Based on the results of the reconsideration in the regional court, Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was excluded from the verdict and the spouses were given 7 and 6.5 years suspended with a probationary period of 2 years. In August 2022, the cassation court finally approved this decision.
