Amateur archaeologist sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for ‘fakes’ about the Russian army

A St. Petersburg court sentenced amateur archaeologist Oleg Belousov to 5.5 years in prison after finding him guilty of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army and calling for extremist activities.

The basis for the case against Belousov were posts he made on Russian social networking site VKontakte. According to the investigation, his posts contained “information known to be false” about the Russian military, and Belousov posted them “motivated by political hatred, and to induce a limitless circle of people to commit extremist acts.”

Novaya Gazeta Europe said that the charges were related to three comments left by Belousov in the Petersburg Diggers group on VKontakte. The comments reportedly read: “Putin is traitor Number One, plunderer of the country, and a war criminal;” “Who started these murders? Putler,” and “Russian speaking cities like Kharkov, Mariupol, and others could be destroyed.”

Grigory Grigoriev, Belousov’s lawyer, says that Belousov never wrote “Who started these murders? Putler.” He says the prosecutor attributed words Belousov had reposted to Belousov himself and then used them as part of the prosecution.

The prosecutor asked the court to sentence Belousov to 9.5 years in prison. The defendant is disabled and is also the sole caregiver for his disabled son.

Belousov did not admit his guilt, and asked the court to acquit him:

I’m not a rapist, or a thief, or a nazi. I’m from a family which survived the Siege of Leningrad [by Nazi Germany from 1941–1944]. My grandfather died during the siege. My grandmother was left with three children. The oldest was a pilot. He died in 1942, defending the skies above Ukraine. I know what war is, my grandmother, my mother, and my older sister brought me up to dislike aggression and lies. I’m simply a civilian with no militaristic ambitions, against war and the destruction of cities. I lived wishing ill on no one, and worked on rehabilitating my disabled son. I don’t believe my actions constitute crimes. I ask you to acquit.