The court rejected the request of the Federal Penitentiary Service to send a Cherepovets human rights activist to a pre-trial detention center due to a failure of the tracking bracelet

At a meeting of the Cherepovets City Court, the Federal Penitentiary Service demanded that local human rights activist Gregory Marcus Severin Winter be placed in a pre-trial detention center under house arrest due to the activation of a tracking bracelet. This was reported by OVD-Info lawyer Sergei Tikhonov, who represents the man’s interests.

According to a representative of the correctional service, the bracelet was activated due to the fact that Winter was absent from the apartment for 17 minutes on April 25. Lawyer Tikhonov insists that there was an equipment failure. He emphasized that there is no evidence that his client was actually outside the house. The prosecutor also opposed toughening the punishment.

The court will announce the decision on the proposal of the Federal Penitentiary Service on June 8 at 14:00.

The human rights activist is accused of disseminating “deliberately false information” about the armed forces of the Russian Federation (clause “e” of Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) due to a comment about the dead civilians of Bucha and eight reposts about the shelling of a drama theater in Mariupol . The case was opened in September 2022, then the man was sent to a pre-trial detention center. In October he was transferred to house arrest. In December, the prosecutor's office approved the indictment in the case, and it is now being considered by the Cherepovets City Court. In April, the court softened the conditions of house arrest, allowing Winter to visit medical facilities if necessary.

Winter talked about the difficult conditions in the pre-trial detention center: at night the temperature in his cell dropped to 4-6 degrees - as a result, the man became deaf in one ear due to the low temperature. In the isolation ward, he lacked the necessary medications, including insulin. Winter also reported that in the pre-trial detention center they humiliated and beat him, trying to get him to write a statement saying that he was “low.”

On June 8, the Cherepovets City Court rejected the FSIN’s request to send Gregory Winter into custody. The human rights activist will remain under house arrest. This was reported by his lawyer from OVD-Info, Sergei Tikhonov.

The headline of the news has been changed due to the appearance of news about the judge's decision

• The case of “fakes” about the Russian army is not the first case of persecution of a human rights activist. In 2020, a criminal case was opened against Winter for “fakes” about coronavirus (Article 207.1 of the Criminal Code) and was sentenced to two years of restriction of freedom. In August of the same year, the punishment was replaced by six months of correctional labor. The man was also prosecuted for contempt of court.
• 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 550 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .
• Article 207.3 (Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation) was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 - in this way the authorities 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 this article is 15 years in prison.