The court approved the verdict of Tyumen resident Martyushev in the case of calls for extremism

Due to the publication of a video message on Telegram, Kirill Martyushev was sentenced to three years in prison.

On June 8, 2023, the Tyumen Regional Court approved the sentence to local resident Kirill Martyushev under part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremist activity made on the Internet).

On January 30, 2023, the Central District Court of Tyumen sentenced him to three years in prison in a penal colony with a two-year ban on administering websites on the Internet. Earlier, during the debate, the public prosecutor asked the court to sentence him to four years in prison.

The criminal case against Martyushev was initiated in 2022: he was detained on March 5, after which he was taken into custody. Charge under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code is associated with a video message in the "circle" format in Telegram, which Martyushev published on February 24, 2022. On that day, he was detained under Part 5 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (participation in an unapproved public event), and after a protocol was drawn up against him, he left the police and recorded a video for his mother, which he also posted on a channel called "#NETVOINE".

It was reported that in this video, Martyushev was surprised at the passive political position of “such people”, “tolerated”, who are looking for “malicious” violators at a peaceful anti-war rally, adding: “such people should be immediately sent to the electric chair, in my opinion.” According to investigators, the video contained a public call for violent actions against police officers. At the time of the initiation of the criminal case, 40 Internet users had read the recording.

If the above retelling of the video is correct, then, in our opinion, Martyushev’s statement was an emotional reaction to the unlawful, from his point of view, actions of law enforcement officers in connection with his peaceful position regarding the special operation that had begun on the territory of Ukraine. This statement had a relatively narrow audience and did not pose any immediate threat to law enforcement officials. Therefore, we are inclined to believe that Martyushev's act did not have sufficient public danger for his criminal prosecution. On the principles for evaluating statements in cases under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code, see also here .

Sources

• Three years in prison for a circle in Telegram // Network freedoms. Telegram. 2023. January 30.
• According to social media.