In Nizhny Novgorod, the rector of the Temple of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has his arrest extended

On April 23, the Moskovsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod again extended the arrest of businessman and rector of the Temple of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Mikhail Iosilevich, accused in the case of an “undesirable organization” (Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code). The telegram channel “Delo Iosilevich” writes about this.

The arrest was extended for two months, while the previous period of the preventive measure lasted only one month.

At the meeting it became known that another criminal case had been opened against Iosilevich - under the article on threats to kill based on political, ideological, racial, national or religious enmity. (Part 2 of Article 119 of the Criminal Code). The investigation believes that he threatened witness Yaroslav Grach over the phone.

The court added three expert opinions to the case, refuting Grach’s claims that he identified Iosilevich by voice. At the same time, the court indicated that it does not have the right to evaluate these conclusions at this stage. The contents of the examinations were written in detail in the Temple of the Flying Spaghetti Monster group on VKontakte.

The defense noted that the investigation did not provide any justification for extending such a strict preventive measure, other than indicating the need to carry out certain investigative measures. Iosilevich himself drew attention to the fact that the court listens only to the words of the witness and rejects the provided examinations, which is why the arrest can be extended indefinitely.

This is the first case known to OVD-Info of placing a defendant in custody in a case involving the activities of an “undesirable organization.” Until now, only the very first accused in such a case, former member of Open Russia in the Rostov region Anastasia Shevchenko, was seriously restricted in her movements - she was under house arrest for more than two years. In February shewas sentenced to four years of suspended imprisonment.

On May 20, the Regional Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region upheld Iosilevich’s arrest for two months. This was reported on the Nizhny Novgorod Political Red Cross page on Facebook.

• In the fall of 2020, as part of the case against Iosilevich, security forces conducted searches of Nizhny Novgorod activists: Dmitry Silivonchik, Alexey Sadomovsky, Yuri Shaposhnikov, Roman Tregubov and the editor-in-chief of Koza.press Irina Slavina. Slavina committed self-immolation the next day.
• The case itself arose as a result of an error. According to the case materials, one of the grounds for bringing Iosilevich to criminal liability was the interview of the executive director of Open Russia, Andrei Pivovarov, to the online publication Znak.Com. Pivovarov in an interview says that the independent project “United Democrats” is participating in the election campaign in the Novgorod region, but the Nizhny Novgorod region made the headlines instead of the Novgorod region.
• In April 2017, the Prosecutor General's Office recognized as undesirable several organizations associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, registered in the UK and the USA. The Russian Open Russia movement was not banned. Despite this, administrative cases are regularly opened against its activists for participation in the activities of an undesirable organization. On March 30, 2019, Open Russia announced its self-liquidation for security reasons.