The court returned to the prosecutor the case of discrediting the army against a resident of Nizhny Tagil

The court found that the indictment was drawn up with violations.

On July 5, 2024, the Tagilstroevsky District Court of Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, returned the first case under Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code (repeated discrediting of the use of the Russian armed forces) of 39-year-old activist Dmitry Cherepkov to the prosecutor due to violations in drawing up the indictment.

The initiation of a criminal case became known on July 18, 2023, and Cherepkov was given a written undertaking not to leave the country as a preventive measure. The reason for his criminal prosecution was a comment he left in one of the VKontakte communities. In the comment, the Tagil resident stated that he does not support the "Banderites", but this does not prevent him from classifying Russian troops as "occupiers".

Initially, it was stated that the case was initiated under Part 1 of Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code (public calls for actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of Russia). At the same time, the media cited the conclusion of a specialist from the Ural Judicial Expertise Center, according to which the commentary of a resident of Nizhny Tagil contained "the conviction of the addressee of the negative nature of the goals of using the RF Armed Forces, that is, their discrediting." This led us to assume that the case was initiated under Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code (repeated discrediting of the use of the RF Armed Forces). On November 14, 2023, the information that Cherepkov's actions were qualified under Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code was confirmed. On January 30, 2024, it became known that the investigation into the case was completed; on February 14, the Tagilstroevsky District Court registered the case materials.

It should be noted that the same court has been considering another criminal case against Cherepkov on five counts of the same article since the beginning of May 2024.

The activist had previously been held accountable under an administrative article on discrediting the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). On April 18, 2023, the Tagilstroyevsky District Court fined him 35 thousand rubles. The reason for the prosecution that time was also comments on VKontakte. Cherepkov told local media that he did not have the money to pay the fine.

In our opinion, the introduction of a ban on discrediting the actions of the Russian armed forces and government agencies abroad into legislation was an unjustified restriction of the right to freedom of expression, designed to suppress criticism of the authorities' political course. Therefore, we consider prosecution under the relevant articles (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences and 280.3 of the Criminal Code) for statements that do not contain direct calls for violence to be unlawful.

Sources

• Criminal case file No. 1-264/2024 // Tagilstroevsky District Court of Nizhny Tagil. 2024. July 9.
• Preliminary investigation into the case of discrediting the army against a resident of Nizhny Tagil completed // OVD-Info. 2024. January 30.
• A criminal case has been opened against a resident of Nizhny Tagil who called Russian military occupiers // OVD-Info. 2023. November 14.
• A criminal case for calls to violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation was opened against a resident of the Sverdlovsk region for a comment on VKontakte // ASTRA. 2023. July 18.
• In Nizhny Tagil, activist Dmitry Cherepkov was fined 35 thousand rubles under the article on discrediting the RF Armed Forces // AN "Between the Lines". 2023. April 20.
• Administrative Offence Case Card No. 5-42/2023 // Tagilstroevsky District Court of Nizhny Tagil. 2023. April 19.