"Memorial" recognized as political prisoners the eight accused in the "Penza case"

The Memorial human rights center recognized the eight defendants in the Penza case as political prisoners, according to the organization’s website.

Among them are Maxim Ivankin, Vasily Kuksov, Mikhail Kulkov, Dmitry Pchelintsev, Arman Sagynbaev, Andrey Chernov, Ilya Shakursky and Igor Shishkin.

“The authorities are cultivating the image of anarchists involved in terrorism and attempts to destabilize the socio-political situation. Detainees are routinely and openly tortured. Any non-systemic, informal self-organization, especially youth, is suppressed,” human rights activists write.

Earlier, Memorial recognized the other defendants in this case, Yuli Boyarshinov and Viktor Filinkov, as political prisoners.

Penza case

The criminal case against the “terrorist community “Network”” was opened by the FSB in October 2017. Then, within a month, Zorin, Shakursky, Kuksov, Pchelintsev, Chernov and Sagynbaev were detained in Penza (the latter was found by security forces in St. Petersburg and transported to Penza). Two Penza residents - Ivankin and Kulkov - fled and were put on the wanted list; On July 6, 2018, it became known that they were detained in Moscow, taken to Penza and arrested. In January 2018, Viktor Filinkov and Igor Shishkin were detained in St. Petersburg in connection with the same case. On April 11, charges were brought against another St. Petersburg resident, Yuli Boyarshinov.

Most of the defendants in the case are anti-fascists and anarchists; Many detainees are also united by their passion for airsoft.

Relatives of the Penza defendants in the case said that during their arrest they were planted with weapons and then tortured. spoke in detail about torture Viktor Filinkov , Dmitry Pchelintsev and Ilya Shakursky . In September, Arman Sagynbaev said that he confessed under torture. torture . reported Already in court , another defendant, Andrei Chernov,

, who was released as a witness, also reported about the interrogation with the use of a stun gun Ilya Kapustin - fearing for his safety, he, like Filinkov’s wife Alexandra , went to Finland and received political asylum there.

Pchelintsev and Shakursky claimed that FSB officers tortured them with electric shocks in the basement of the Penza pre-trial detention center. Shishkin did not report torture, but doctors diagnosed him with a fracture of the lower wall of the orbit, numerous hematomas and abrasions, and members of the Public Monitoring Committee who visited Shishkin in the pre-trial detention center recorded numerous marks on his body similar to burns from electrical wires. In addition, the accused Yuliy Boyarshinov spent several months in the “press huts” of pre-trial detention center No. 6 in the Leningrad region. There he was beaten several times.

The Investigative Committee has already refused to initiate criminal cases of torture of Filinkov and Kapustin - the investigator decided that Filinkov was legally beaten by FSB officers with a stun gun , and the marks on Kapustin’s body were not from the stun gun, but from bedbug bites .

Part 2 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code (participation in a terrorist community), under which the “Penza case” was initiated and is being investigated, provides for five to 10 years in prison. One of the defendants in the case, anti-fascist Igor Shishkin, has already received 3.5 years in prison. He fully admitted his guilt, signed an agreement to cooperate with the investigation and testified against the other defendants.