The defendant in the case of burning an effigy in military uniform left Russia

Activist Sofya Semenova, who is suspected of burning an effigy in military uniform in St. Petersburg, left Russia on March 27. She spoke about this on her Instagram that same day.

told As Semenova wrote, a few days before, she learned that her preventive measure would be appealed by the prosecutor’s office, insisting on the need to place the activist in custody. “At that moment I completely lost hope that I would remain free. Moreover, <...> the second defendant in the same case has already been put in a pre-trial detention center,” the girl wrote.

Semenova is charged with hooliganism motivated by political and ideological hatred, committed by a group of people (Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, on March 6, on Maslenitsa, she and Igor Maltsev burned an effigy in military uniform on the ice of the Malaya Neva. The effigy had the words “Take it” written on it; the action was dedicated to the demand to take the bodies of Russian soldiers killed during the “special operation” from Ukraine.

The next day, the activist was searched, after which she was taken for interrogation. The girl has been in the temporary detention center for almost two days. As a result, the court imposed a preventive measure on Semenova in the form of a ban on certain actions for two months, and on another defendant, Igor Maltsev, in a pre-trial detention center for the same period.

passed passed elected sent Now, according to Semenova, she is safe in another country, but she will be able to return to Russia only when “the regime ends,” and her case is closed, and the activist herself is rehabilitated.

• At the moment, at least five cases have been opened in St. Petersburg, directly or indirectly related to the public reaction to the actions of the Russian Armed Forces on the territory of Ukraine. OVD-Info such cases, which we have united under the general name “Anti-war case”. monitors