Sergei Rygaev was born on 18 September 1971 and lives in Omsk. He is married and worked as a sheet metal worker. He was detained on 4 March 2024 and remanded in custody on 5 March 2024. On 26 August 2024, he was placed under house arrest, and on 24 February 2025, the preventive measure was changed to a prohibition on certain activities.
On 29 April 2026, he was convicted under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code ('Organising the activities of an extremist organisation') in connection with his membership in a community of Jehovah's Witnesses, which is banned in Russia, and sentenced to three years of compulsory labour in a correctional centre. The prosecution appealed the sentence.
On 6 August 2026, the appellate court increased his sentence to six years' imprisonment in a general-regime penal colony. Sergei was taken into custody in the courtroom immediately after the judgment was announced.
