FSB investigators gave alcohol to the person arrested for reposting on a telegram. And they recorded the conversation on video - he was attached to the case

On March 15, the debate in the Spassky District Court of the Primorsky Territory in the case of lawyer Dmitry Tretyakov ended. He became the first person to be arrested under Article 280 for publicly inciting extremism for reposting on Telegram (previously, cases of reposting only concerned publications on VKontakte). The lawyer was arrested on April 4, 2018.

Sergey Valiulin, a lawyer for Dmitry Tretyakov and an employee of the human rights organization Pravozashchita Otkrytki, told Meduza that on March 14 he tried to protest the inclusion in the case of a videotape made by FSB investigators as evidence. A four-hour video filmed at the FSB headquarters in Primorsky Krai in April 2018 shows Dmitry Tretyakov and another arrested Andrei Ternopolsky drinking alcohol that was handed to them by FSB officers. Valiulin believes that in this way they tried to provoke his client to admit guilt. But the court denied the petition, agreeing with the arguments of the investigation that this episode was an operational measure.

The court adjourned the hearing until March 27; according to lawyer Sergei Valiulin, the verdict should be expected no later than March 29. The prosecution asked for two years in a colony-settlement for Dmitry Tretyakov.

Valiulin believes that this is a “cunning move”: “If the court agrees, then Dmitry will be automatically released, because the other day, the year of his detention has passed, and in such cases, the time served is counted on the basis of a day for two.”

According to the defender, the process went on with numerous violations - in particular, the defense side was limited in time for preparing for the debate. Human rights activists are going to send the case of Dmitry Tretyakov to the European Court of Human Rights.

A criminal case against Tretyakov was initiated because of a telegram entry - he reposted a publication from the channel of journalist Arkady Babchenko. Dmitry Tretyakov accompanied the publication with the comment “I agree”. The authorities regarded this as a call "to carry out extremist activities." Russian investigators did not make any claims to Babchenko about the post.

Vladislav Gorin