Melnik Vladimir

Name: Melnik Vladimir Vasiliyevich
Date of Birth: December 13, 1965
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 1215 day in a pre-trial detention, 227 day in prison
Sentence: punishment in the form of 6 years of imprisonment with serving in a correctional colony of general regime with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public and religious organizations and associations, for a period of 3 years, with restriction of liberty for a period of 1 year and 6 months
Currently held in: Correctional Colony No. 5 of the Kirov Region
Address for correspondence: Melnik Vladimir Vasiliyevich, born 1965, Correctional Colony No. 5 of the Kirov Region, Ul. Ovrazhnaya, 16, Kirovo-Chepetsk, Kirov Region, 613040

Letters of support can be sent by regular mail or through the «zonatelecom».

Parcels and parcels should not be sent because of the limit on their number per year.

Note: discussing topics related to criminal prosecution is not allowed in letters; languages other than Russian will not pass.

Biography

A former officer and father of three daughters, Vladimir Melnik became a staunch Christian almost 30 years ago. However, in December 2020, he unexpectedly ended up in the Oryol pre-trial detention center for his faith. This law-abiding man became accused under an "extremist" article.

Vladimir was born in December 1965 in Donetsk (Ukrainian SSR). His father was a photographer, his mother worked in a factory. Vladimir has an elder sister. As a child, he was fond of athletics, swimming, electronics and photography, and raised rabbits. He graduated from the Kiev Suvorov Military School and with honors the Oryol Higher Military Command School of Communications named after M. I. Kalinin of the KGB of the USSR (now the Academy of the FSO), where he received the specialty "engineer of radio relay and tropospheric communication lines." After completing military service, he worked as an engineer, manager, finisher, and electrician.

From 1983 to 1987, Vladimir lived in Orel, where he met his future wife Irina at a friend's wedding. Later, he was transferred to Poland, from where in 1994 the family decided to return to Oryol. Now Irina is a housewife. She likes to read, draw, sing, write poetry, make decorative cards, knit and sew clothes for dolls. The Melnik family has three adult daughters. Mariya works as a translator, Anastasiya is a specialist in information technology, the youngest daughter Yekaterina graduated from high school with a gold medal and works as a tutor in mathematics and computer science.

Since childhood, Vladimir was an atheist, but one day he came across a book about the life of Jesus Christ. According to him, she "turned his mind." After some time, both spouses became Christians. They worked hard to educate children based on the biblical commandments.

After the search, Irina's chronic diseases worsened. Due to criminal prosecution, the family was left without a breadwinner, whom they really lack.

Case History

Since 2009, Vladimir Melnik, a father of many children from Oryol, has been keeping a record of pressure, threats and provocations from the FSB. In December 2020, his home was invaded by armed law enforcement officers. Vladimir Piskarev and Artur Putintsev were also detained. The believers were placed in a pretrial detention center and their names were added to the Rosfinmonitoring list. In January 2022, the case went to court. During the hearings, it became clear that a hidden wiretapping was installed in Piskarev’s apartment, from which audio recordings formed the basis of the charges. In the pretrial detention center, his health began to deteriorate — he suffered a stroke and more than one hypertensive crises. Nevertheless, the preventive measure was not mitigated neither for him, nor for Melnik or Putintsev. In October 2023, the court sentenced the three believers to 6 years in a penal colony. In March 2024, the court of appeal upheld the verdict.
Timeline
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