Murder convict claims coercion, fights to prove innocence
Lubov Vizenkina from Ryazan Oblast insists she was forced to confess to a murder 25 years ago and has been trying to clear her name after serving 7.5 years in prison.
Apr 17, 2026 0
In 2000, the life of Lubov Vizenkina from Ryazan Oblast was divided into before and after. She was sentenced to 10 years for the murder of fellow villager Viktor Svetushkin, but she claims that she was framed. According to her, the crime could have been committed by her former cohabitant Viktor Pchelkin.
Lubov Vizenkina met Viktor Pchelkin when she was 18 years old and working as a milkmaid. The man showed up at her doorstep with a plaid bag after another stint in a penal colony — that«s how the story began.
Источник:
Lubov told YA62.RU that on the morning of the murder, she met Svetushkin on the street. He complained that Pchelkin was allegedly stealing his meat and taking it to a moonshiner at the other end of the village of Sekirino.
In the evening, Lubov Vizenkina demanded an explanation from her cohabitant, but he left to «sort things out» with Viktor Svetushkin.
A couple of minutes later, Lubov heard the door of the fellow villager«s house slam. In the yard, she saw Viktor Pchelkin: according to her version, he was standing with a Finnish knife in his hand and bloodied money.
‘He said: «Take all this upon yourself, you have a small child, nothing will happen to you. Otherwise, the first one I»ll kill is your sister, I«ll twist her head off,»’ Lubov recalls of that day.
Lubov Vizenkina was sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony, but she was released on parole after 7.5 years. All this time, she wrote petitions asking for the case to be reviewed, tried to prove her innocence, but it was all in vain. The resident of Skopinsky District repeated her attempts after release and quickly stopped: the police said that Viktor Pchelkin was dead.
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