A court in St. Petersburg extended the arrest of Viktor Filinkov, a defendant in the Network case.

The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg extended the arrest term of anti-fascist Viktor Filinkov, accused in the Network case. Ekaterina Kosarevskaya, a member of the St. Petersburg Public Monitoring Commission, reported this to OVD-Info.

Filinkov will remain in custody at least until October 22.

The trial was held behind closed doors. The assistant to the chairman of the court announced in advance that the meeting would be held behind closed doors - supposedly a decision on this was made in preparation for the meeting. The bailiffs tried to kick everyone out of the floor on which the courtroom is located, but they failed and then they blocked the passage. Media representatives were also not allowed in.

Mediazona journalist David Frenkelwas detained and a report was drawn up against him under Art. 17.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (disobedience to a lawful order of a bailiff). Mediazona clarifies that he was detained on the orders of an assistant judge; the bailiffs also claim that the journalist allegedly screamed. At the same time, Frenkel's glasses were broken.

The press service of the St. Petersburg courts reported on the successful extension of the preventive measure for Filinkov, as well as other defendants in the case, Yuli Boyarshinov and Igor Shishkin, in their channel in the Tam-Tam application yesterday. Shishkin’s arrest was indeed extended yesterday, but the detention hearing for Boyarshinov should be after the hearing on Filinkov.

On June 14 and 15, the court in Penza extended the arrest of Arman Sagynbaev, Ilya Shakursky, Dmitry Pchelintsev, Vasily Kuksov and Andrey Chernov, those involved in the “Network” case.

Filinkov was detained on January 23 at Pulkovo airport. Then FSB officers took him for a medical examination, and then drove him through a forest belt for several hours in a car and, under torture, forced him to learn by heart the wording of his confession, Filinkov said . Three days later, members of the Public Monitoring Commission of St. Petersburg managed to record numerous traces of burns from a stun gun on his body.

According to the FSB version , which the military investigation also agreed with, they took the Filinkovs from the airport to the police department, then to the hospital, where they stayed until 3:30 in the morning. After that, they went back to the department and on the way Filinkov tried to escape. The senior detective of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg, Kirill Bondarev, whom Filinkov pointed out, and the deputy head of the department, Kotin, told the investigator that when they were transporting the anti-fascist, he pushed Bondarev and tried to jump out of the car. Then one of the security officials, on Bondarev’s instructions, “given the transience of what was happening,” struck the detainee twice with an electric shock. This is stated in the notice of refusal to initiate a case, which the investigator for especially important cases Sergei Valentov sent to lawyer Cherkasov.

• Viktor Filinkov is accused of participating in the terrorist organization “Network” (Part 2 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code). According to the FSB, its participants were preparing for the outbreak of unrest in the country.
• On January 25, St. Petersburg resident Igor Shishkin disappeared - he went for a walk with his dog. The dog returned home not alone, but with the security forces, who conducted a search . The Dzerzhinsky court in St. Petersburg arrested Shishkin on the same charges as Filinkov.
• On January 21, Yuli Boyarshinov was detained, apparently by accident. They found with him 400 grams of black powder - a relatively weak explosive used for making fireworks, as well as by hunters and amateur shooters. Two days later, Boyarshinov was charged only with illegal possession of explosives (Part 1 of Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code) and was arrested. FSB officers began visiting Boyarshinov in the pre-trial detention center. They threatened to worsen his conditions of detention if he did not “speak” and named the names of those involved in the “Network” case from Penza. Yuli Boyarshinov refused to communicate. As a result, he was transferred from the Kresty-2 pre-trial detention center to the Gorelovo pre-trial detention center to a cell with 115 beds, where 150 people are being held - accused of murder, rape and robbery. On April 11, 2018, he was charged with participation in the terrorist community “Network” (Part 2 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code).
• Ilya Kapustin, an industrial climber from St. Petersburg, stated that at the end of January he was attacked by FSB officers who tortured him with electric shocks. After that, he left Russia and asked for political asylum in Finland. On March 19, an inspection took place in the apartment he rented in St. Petersburg.
• In October 2017, five people were arrested in Penza. Another person was transported from St. Petersburg to Penza and also placed in an isolation ward. All were accused of participating in a terrorist community. According to the FSB, the young people participated in an organization called “Network,” which allegedly has cells in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Penza and Belarus. Those involved in the terrorism case in Penza talked about psychological pressure, electric shock torture, “hanging upside down” and weapons that FSB officers planted on them.