Russian man awaiting trial for anti-war stance has arrest extended despite worsening health

A court in the city of Samara in Russia’s Volga region has extended the pretrial detention of a saxophonist with severe health issues awaiting trial for his anti-war social media posts by three months, the End of Law Telegram channel reported on Wednesday.

Before the start of the hearing, Andrey Shabanov, a musician, complained of his worsening psoriasis, saying that he would never be able to play the saxophone again due to joint damage to his fingers caused by arthritis. Shabanov stripped to his underwear to show the court severe lesions all over his body.

“All my diagnoses for the last 20 years are there in black and white. … This is against the law. This is mistreatment of a disabled person like in Nazi Germany!” Shabanov said.

The prosecutor responded that the court had no documentary evidence of the disease and duly extended Shabanov’s detention.

“This is mistreatment of a disabled person like in Nazi Germany!”

Shabanov was arrested in April on suspicion of publicly calling for terrorism in social media posts criticising the actions of the Russian army. He was also accused of trying to upload a photo of Adolf Hitler to the online patriotic website Immortal Regiment, which collects photographs of Russian World War II veterans.

After Shabanov’s case received press coverage, he was sent to the prison infirmary in late August, but treatment proved unsuccessful.

At a previous hearing in August, Shabanov appealed to the court: “Look what is happening to me! I am rotting alive, and you are giving me another six months? You say I have no complaints? Are you crazy! I’m rotting, rotting everywhere — my legs, my arms, my head. And you say I’m not. Aren’t you ashamed?” On that occasion too, his detention was extended.