Translated material
Yuri Dmitriev detained in Karelia
In Karelia, the head of the local branch of Memorial, Yuri Dmitriev, was detained on charges of child pornography. This is reported by Novaya Gazeta.
According to Dmitriev's daughter Ekaterina Klodt, he was detained on the way to the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery (located in the Leningrad Region), where he went with a friend.
“In Olonets, they were stopped by traffic police officers, they said that there was an orientation, that a criminal case had been opened against dad by investigator Maxim Zavatsky and that he had to go to a temporary detention facility,” Klodt was quoted as saying by the publication.
According to a TASS source in law enforcement agencies, Dmitriev was detained not because of a new criminal case, but for violating his travel ban.
The NTV channel published the news that Dmitriev was allegedly detained while trying to leave for Poland because of "new facts proving the charges against him [of child pornography]." According to lawyer Viktor Anufriev, Dmitriev does not have a foreign passport and was not going to leave Russia.
Yuri Dmitriev is a researcher of Stalin's repressions. In 1997, he discovered Sandarmokh, the place of execution and burial of more than 9 thousand people during the Great Terror. Dmitriev's associates believe that he is being persecuted by the Karelian security forces for many years of work to restore the memory of the victims of political repression.
- In June 2018, the Supreme Court of Karelia overturned the acquittal of Yuri Dmitriev, who was accused of producing child pornography. They took a written undertaking not to leave Dmitriev; A new trial will begin in August.