A court in Vladikavkaz arrested a COVID dissident for two months

On April 20, the Leninsky District Court of Vladikavkaz arrested civil activist and baritone opera singer Vadim Cheldiev for two months, who called on people to come out to a gathering against the restrictive measures imposed due to the coronavirus. by Reported Yug. MBH Media.

In protest, Cheldiev went on a hunger strike. He was arrested as part of a criminal case on the use of non-hazardous violence against a government official (part 1 of article 318 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, Cheldiev punched an employee of Center E several times in the face, who was escorting the activist as part of another criminal case.

In a conversation with Mediazona, the lawyer of the arrested man, Batraz Gulchiev, expressed doubt that Cheldiev hit the policeman, since he did not have a mark on his arm. The activist himself claimed that during a stop on the road to Vladikavkaz, one of the policemen who were in the same car with him during the escort hit the second in the face. After that, the man was handcuffed.

The first criminal case against Vadim Cheldiev was opened on April 15 — he was accused of publicly disseminating deliberately false information about the spread of the coronavirus (Article 207.1 of the Criminal Code). The news on the website of the Investigative Committee for North Ossetia says that a native of Vladikavkaz distributed two videos about the far-fetchedness of the measures taken by the official authorities of the republic on its territory to protect the population from coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Cheldiev was detained on April 17 in St. Petersburg, from where he was sent by escort to North Ossetia. The conflict, because of which the activist was arrested, happened, according to investigators, at a gas station already on the territory of the republic.

Before his detention, Vadim Cheldiev published video messages in which he expressed his opinion on the restrictions imposed in North Ossetia due to the coronavirus. In one of the appeals on his telegram channel, Cheldiev spoke about a nationwide gathering on April 20 against “total control” in connection with the coronavirus measures.

15:45 A court in Vladikavkaz fined Vadim Cheldiev 75 thousand rubles under an administrative article on the dissemination of knowingly false information (part 9 of article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). This is reported by MBH Media with reference to his lawyer.

The fine was imposed because of a video on March 30, in which the activist talked about the differences between the actual number of deaths due to coronavirus in Italy and official data.

• Vadim Cheldiev is a COVID-dissident, baritone opera singer and supporter of the ideas of Citizens of the USSR, who accused the authorities of North Ossetia of lying in connection with the coronavirus pandemic.
• in the center of Vladikavkaz On April 20, a people's gathering took place against the self-isolation regime. About two thousand people took part in the action. The protesters were brutally dispersed by riot police, and as a result, 69 people were detained.