The Moscow City Court left under arrest the author of the telegram channel “Protest MSU” Dmitry Ivanov

The Moscow City Court rejected the appeal against the arrest of the author of the telegram channel “Protest MGU” Dmitry Ivanov, accused of disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army (clause “d”, part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). Avtozak LIVE reports this.

The interests of the activist are represented by lawyer from OVD-Info Maria Eismont: at the meeting she added 504 guarantees for Ivanov to the case, and also asked the court to change his preventive measure to house arrest.

On June 3, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow sent the young man to a pre-trial detention center for two months. According to investigators, the activist spread “fakes” about the Russian army through publications on the telegram channel “Protest MSU” - this became the basis for criminal prosecution.

These posts, according to the prosecution, spoke about Russian attacks on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, war crimes of the Russian army in Bucha and Irpen, and also that Russia was waging a war on the territory of Ukraine, and not a “special operation.”

The criminal case against Ivanov became known on June 2 - on that day, security forces came with searches to his parents, SOTA journalist Gleb Yakutov and several Moscow activists. After interrogation, they were all released as witnesses.

Ivanov himself was detained pending trial: at that moment he was serving 25 days of administrative arrest under the article on repeated violation of the procedure for holding an action (Part 8 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code) and was supposed to be released in the evening.

On June 27, the lawyer reported that Ivanov was placed in Moscow pre-trial detention center-1 “Matrosskaya Tishina”. Before that, he was in pre-trial detention center-7 “Kapotnya”.

• Article 207.3 – on the dissemination of “fake news” about the Russian army – was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022. In this way, the authorities responded to anti-war protests and statements, as well as the dissemination of information about the war that did not come from official Russian sources. The maximum penalty under this article is 15 years in prison.
• At the time of publication of the news, more than 190 people were involved in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our guide .