A criminal case against Evgeniy Roizman was brought to court

The materials of the criminal case under the article on repeated discrediting of the army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) against the ex-mayor of Yekaterinburg Evgeny Roizman were received by the Oktyabrsky District Court of the city. The case file is available on the court website; the first hearing was scheduled for April 26.

According to investigators, on July 1, 2022, Roizman, “wanting to undermine the authority of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and discredit their use,” conducted a stream on his YouTube channel. The Moscow prosecutor's office approved the indictment in the case at the end of March.

The former mayor of Yekaterinburg was detained on August 24, 2022. Searches were carried out in the politician’s apartment and in organizations associated with him. Later, Roizmanwas chosen as a preventive measure - a ban on certain actions. He is not allowed to visit public places, use any means of communication or receive correspondence. In November of the same year, Roizman was added to the register of “foreign agents.”

A criminal case under Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code for repeated discrediting of the Russian Army can be brought against those who have been prosecuted at least once under a similar Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses during the year. Thus, in March and April 2022, Roizman was fined a total of 150 thousand rubles under three administrative protocols for discrediting the military. In May, it became known that two fines were approved by the appellate court, and the decisions came into force.

In mid-March of this year, the Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg arrested Roizman for 14 days, finding him guilty of demonstrating prohibited symbols (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code) due to reposting the video “Why is Putin imprisoning Navalny?” on VKontakte.

The video featured a six-second demonstration of the symbols of Navalny’s supporters on a badge. The politician’s wife said that her husband does not have a page on VKontakte, and the repost was made by the administrators of the group “Evgeniy Roizman,” to which he has no relation.

• Since February 24, 2022—the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine—residents of Russian cities have been holding anti-war protests every day and talking about the tragedy online. Anti-war speeches and statements become grounds for criminal prosecution. At the moment, more than 500 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our guide .
• Article 280.3 (Public actions aimed at discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation) was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 - in this way the government responded to anti-war speeches and statements, as well as the dissemination of information about the war that does not come from official Russian sources. The maximum penalty under the article is seven years in prison.