Name: Dikhtyar Nikolay Petrovich
Date of Birth: December 24, 1954
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Current restrictions: suspended sentence
Sentence: punishment in the form of 2 years 5 months of imprisonment with restriction of liberty for a period of 1 year, the sentence of imprisonment is considered suspended with a probationary period of 2 years 6 months

Biography

Nikolay Dikhtyar, a pensioner from Primorye Territory, led a calm, measured life until the security forces came to his house to conduct a search. It turned out that the father of three children was suspected of extremism only because of his faith in Jehovah God.

Nikolay was born in December 1954 in the city of Makeyevka (Donetsk region of the Ukrainian SSR). He has an elder and a younger sister.

After school, Nikolay worked as a concrete worker and stoker. Later he graduated from the Irkutsk Polytechnic Institute and received the profession of a thermal power engineer. For many years he worked in his specialty until he retired - 14 years after the retirement age. As a child, Nikolay fell in love with fishing and to this day does not miss the opportunity to go fishing in his free time.

In 1975, Nikolay got married. The couple raised three children: a son and two daughters. The family lived in the city of Samarkand (Uzbekistan), the city of Kainda (Kyrgyzstan), the village of Berkakit (Yakutia). Later, Nikolay, together with his wife and three children, moved from Yakutia to where the climate is warmer - to Primorye Territory. There, Nikolay began to study the Bible and learned the benefits of applying its advice. He embarked on the Christian path in 1998.

Due to the criminal prosecution of Nikolay, his relatives experienced stress and are perplexed, for which the authorities opened a case against this law-abiding head of the family.

Case History

In July 2021, Yuriy Ponomarenko’s home was searched in Luchegorsk. The Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case against him on suspicion of organizing the activity of an extremist organization. In November of the same year, as part of the Ponomarenko case, another search was carried out: in the home of Oleg Sergeyev. He was charged under the same article. In March 2022, two more defendants appeared in the case: Andrey Lyakhov and Nikolay Dikhtyar were charged with participating in the activity of an extremist organization. In June 2022, the criminal case against the believers went to court. Almost two years later, in May 2024, the believers were given suspended sentences ranging from two and a half to six and a half years. Later, at the request of the prosecutor, the court of appeal reduced the term of each of the believers by one month.