The court upheld the sentence of a St. Petersburg resident with a disability due to messages critical of the military and Putin

The St. Petersburg City Court approved the sentence of amateur search engine Oleg Belousov, who was sentenced to five years and six months in a general regime colony because of anti-war comments on social networks. This was reported by OVD-Info lawyer Grigory Grigoriev, who represents the interests of the defendant.

In March 2023, Belousov received five years of imprisonment under the article on “fakes” about the Russian army (Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and three years of imprisonment under the article on calls for extremist activity (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code). Based on the totality of the sentences, the man was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

appointed He was also banned from publishing on the Internet for four years. The prosecutor demanded that the St. Petersburg resident be sentenced to eight years in prison under the article on military “fakes” and to three years under the article on calls for extremism. In total, the state prosecutor requested nine and a half years in prison for Belousov.

In the case of “fakes,” Belousov was searched in June 2022, during which security forces tore out the iron door to his apartment. The next day, he, a man with the third group of disabilities, was in pre-trial detention center-1 “Kresty”.

passed sent The reason for the accusation of military “fakes” was messages in the group “” on VKontakte. Among other things, they called the Russian military “Putler’s fascists” who “shoot peaceful people and shoot at houses.” These comments also referred to war crimes in Bucha, Irpen and Gostomel.

St. Petersburg diggers Among them was the comment “Putin is traitor number one, who stole the country and is a war criminal!” Subsequently, this statement became the reason for the prosecution of Belousov under another article - about calls for extremist activity. This criminal case against him in October 2022; Subsequently, both cases were combined into one proceeding.

initiated The investigation also believes that Belousov, with his notes, called for actions aimed at “forcibly changing the constitutional system” of Russia and national hatred.

According to Znak.ru, another treasure hunter filed a complaint against Belousov, with whom they exchanged messages in the group.

writes - Since February 24, 2022 - the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine - residents of Russian cities have been going out to anti-war rallies every day and talking about the tragedy online. Anti-war speeches and statements become grounds for criminal prosecution. At the moment, more than 650 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) in the Criminal Code in March 2022 - this is how 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. turned on