Translated material
The trial of Denis Bakholdin
On December 22 at 11:00 am, the first hearing on the merits of the criminal case against Denis Bakholdin will be held at the Suzemsky District Court of the Bryansk Region.
Bakholdin is charged with part 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization), which provides for two to six years in prison.
Muscovite Bakholdin, a participant in a number of protests, emigrated to Ukraine at the end of 2014. In early March 2017, he arrived in Russia to visit his parents, and was detained by border guards for staying in the border zone without a proper pass. After the detention, Bakholdin was handcuffed to a radiator for 12 hours and beaten on his legs and head, demanding to confess that he was a member of the Right Sector. Then he was taken in handcuffs to the ICR department, with a winter jacket wrapped around his head. On the way, the detainee lost consciousness and almost suffocated.
Information about Bakholdin's arrest appeared in the media only on June 19. The case was handled by the investigators of the ICR Shpakov and Gutorov. The arrested person did not give any evidence and did not sign any documents.
In the summer, Bakholdin refused to undergo an outpatient psychiatric examination in the case, and on August 17 he was sent for an inpatient examination at the Moscow Center. Serbian. There, the administration, after Bakholdin refused to answer questions from psychiatrists about his case, provoked him into a conflict with other prisoners. Then the political prisoner announced a dry hunger strike and a "silence regime" . After five days of protest, the activist was returned ahead of schedule to the capital's SIZO-2 "Butyrka", and from there they were transported back to Bryansk.
According to the prosecution , from July 4 to July 12, 2015, Bakholdin fought in the ATO zone as part of the 5th separate battalion of the Right Sector volunteer corps. Meanwhile, on July 12, 2015, this battalion left its positions in the Donbass after a shootout involving members of the Right Sector in Mukachevo, Transcarpathian region, which took place on July 11.
According to the plot of the case, on October 23, 2014, the political prisoner left for Ukraine through Belarus "in order to join an organization engaged in the fight against pro-Russian supporters on the territory of Ukraine", and then between this date and April 26, 2015 he applied for joining the "Right Sector" , "realizing that the ideology of the nationalist right-wing radical organization "Right Sector" is based on radical Ukrainian nationalism and emphasized Russophobia", and "one of the stated goals of the "Right Sector" is to carry out armed counteraction to "Russian aggression in Crimea".
It is known that materials from a USB-drive (flash drive) confiscated from Bakholdin appear among the evidence in the case. In August, at a hearing on extending the arrest of a political prisoner, investigator Sergei Gutorov stated that among these materials were photographs of Bakholdin against the backdrop of the Ukrainian flag with weapons, as well as some kind of "guide on how to act in the field conditions of a sniper."