Russian schoolboy jailed for terror offences has sentence reduced by 24 days

A Russian court has reduced the prison sentence given to Arseny Turbin, one of Russia’s youngest political prisoners, by 24 days on appeal, his mother told independent news outlet Mediazona on Thursday.

Irina Turbina said that the court had recognised that her son’s initial sentence “had not taken into account the time he had spent undergoing medical examination as an inpatient”, despite the fact that the original verdict remained in force.

Turbin was sentenced to five years in an educational penal colony in June for involvement in the activities of a terrorist organisation. Turbin, a schoolboy from the town of Livny in Russia’s western Oryol region, came to the attention of the authorities for posts critical of Vladimir Putin that he made on his Telegram channel, Free Russia, despite the fact that it only had five subscribers.

The investigation also asserted that Turbin, who was just 14 when the investigation began, had joined the Freedom of Russia Legion in 2023 and posted leaflets critical of Vladimir Putin in local people’s mailboxes on behalf of the organisation. The Russian legion, which fights alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the Russian military in Ukraine, has been designated a terrorist organisation in Russia.

The Federal Security Service’s transcript of Turbin’s interrogation alleged that he had filled out and emailed an application form to join the legion. An audio recording of the interrogation played back in court revealed that he had in fact said the exact opposite.

Last month, Novaya Europe reported that Turbin had both experienced rapid weight loss while in prison and complained of beatings at the hands of his cellmate, although Turbin told his mother in a subsequent phone call that the cellmate had since been transferred to another cell.