{"id":60839,"date":"2026-10-08T14:59:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=60839"},"modified":"2026-10-08T16:41:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:41:28","slug":"vomk-report-420","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2026\/10\/08\/vomk-report-420\/","title":{"rendered":"RUSSIA: MISSIONARY PARK TAE YEON SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS 8 MONTHS IN PRISON"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”As first reported by Voice of the Martyrs Korea, Korean Missionary Park Tae-Yeon was sentenced today in Khabarovsk Court to a total of 5 years 8 months on two immigration-related charges. The sentence is to be served in a general-regime correctional colony. Voice of the Martyrs Korea says an appeal to a higher court on Missionary Park\u2019s behalf is planned. ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left|color:%23111111″ google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Missionary Park<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s co-<\/span>defendant<\/span>, Russian citizen<\/span><\/span> Zinaida Ustinova<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> was sentenced to a total of 6 years on three immigration-related charges<\/span> under the same Articles<\/span>. T<\/span>he court imposed a <\/span>total<\/span> 6 year<\/span> suspended sentence on Ustinova, <\/span>with a probation period of 5 years<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]The court found <\/span>Missionary Park guilty of <\/span>Organization of Illegal Migration<\/span><\/span> by a group of persons by prior agreement<\/span><\/span>,<\/span> <\/span>under <\/span>Article 322.<\/span>1 <\/span>Part 2 <\/span>Paragraph A of the Russian Federation, <\/span>with a <\/span>sentence to <\/span>5 years and 2 months of imprisonment<\/span>. She was also found guilty of <\/span>Fictitious Registration of a Foreign Citizen or Stateless Person at the Place of Stay in the Russian Federation<\/span> under Article <\/span>322.3<\/span> of the Russian Federation, with a sentence of <\/span>2 years and 6 months of imprisonment<\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span>Based on the aggregate of the offenses, the court imposed a total sentence of 5 years and 8 months of imprisonment, to be served in a general-regime correctional colony.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span><\/span>Missionary Park <\/span>was taken to <\/span>a <\/span>pre-trial detention center (SIZO) immediately after the hearing<\/span>, where she will remain<\/span> pending the results of the appeal,<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> says Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>Until now she had been held in <\/span>a detention center for <\/span>f<\/span>oreign <\/span>n<\/span>ationals<\/span>. I<\/span>f the higher court <\/span>upholds the sentence without modification, <\/span>Missionary <\/span>Park will <\/span>most likely be<\/span> sent to a women’s correctional colony <\/span>located<\/span> in the village of <\/span>Zaozernoye<\/span>, Khabarovsk Krai<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>just beyond the city of Khabarovsk<\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Pastor Foley says the <\/span>factors<\/span> the court used in <\/span>determining<\/span> the sentence<\/span><\/span> are <\/span>not yet known. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>The judge announced only the sentence itself and did not state the reasons or the legal grounds for the decision when pronouncing the verdict<\/span><\/span>,<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> says Pastor Foley. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>T<\/span>he written judgment <\/span>will not be available <\/span>until next Wednesday.<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60618″ img_size=”600*800″ alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Ms. Park Tae-yeon has been living with a sincere love for the country of Russia and its people since she arrived there in 1993.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0101|line_height:1.45em” css=””][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Pastor F<\/span>o<\/span>ley notes that the court did not impose a fine and that as a result, th<\/span>e seizure of <\/span>Missionary Park<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s home in Russia was lifted.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Pastor Foley noted that the time Missionary Park spent in the detention center for foreign nationals would not be credited toward her sentence. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>O<\/span>nly the time<\/span> Missionary Park <\/span>spent in custody after the <\/span>the<\/span><\/span> criminal case was <\/span>opened<\/span><\/span>\u2014<\/span><\/span>the period from <\/span>January 15 <\/span>until <\/span>February 4<\/span>–will be <\/span>counted toward her sentence<\/span><\/span>,<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> says Pastor Foley<\/span><\/span>.<\/span> \u201c<\/span><\/span>Authorities say that h<\/span>er stay in the detention center for foreign nationals <\/span>was <\/span>based on an administrative violation, namely that her <\/span>permitted<\/span> period of stay in Russia had expired.<\/span> However, this violation was of course due to authorities detaining her. These will be among the many <\/span>important factors<\/span> to be noted in the appeal.<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Pastor Foley noted that <\/span>Missionary Park<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s co-<\/span>defendant<\/span><\/span>,<\/span> <\/span>Zinaida Ustinov<\/span>a, had not been in detention and remains free due to the sentence being suspended, but she <\/span>must report to the police twice a month to confirm that she is complying with the law and the conditions of her probation.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Voice of Martyrs Korea <\/span>has been advocating for <\/span>M<\/span>issionary Park since her <\/span>arrest<\/span> in <\/span>Khabarovsk, <\/span>Russia <\/span>o<\/span>n January<\/span> 15, <\/span>one week before she was scheduled to return home to Korea to retire at age 70.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]An online petition posted by Voice of the Martyrs Korea from February to April garnered more than 4,000 signatures from Korea, along with<\/span> more than 1,000 <\/span>signatures from <\/span>Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Africa, Finland, Zimbabwe, Poland, Hungary, Indonesia, Romania, Nigeria, Scotland, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]In April, <\/span>Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative<\/span>s<\/span> Dr Hyun Sook Foley <\/span>and CEO Pastor Eric Foley<\/span><\/span> deliver<\/span>ed<\/span><\/span> the<\/span> petition to the Russian Embassy in Seoul<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>calling for the <\/span>missionary\u2019s <\/span>immediate release.<\/span><\/span> Copies of the petition were also sent to the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”As first reported by Voice of the Martyrs Korea, Korean Missionary Park Tae-Yeon was sentenced today in Khabarovsk Court to a total of 5 years 8 months on two …","protected":false},"author":1959,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[857,235,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russian-special","category-special-column","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.6","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60839"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60841,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60839\/revisions\/60841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}