"Maybe I'm bothering someone"

In the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Office, the judge demanded to start a criminal case against a lawyer due to insulting the memory of Wagner commanders

The judge of the Nizhnevartovo City Court of the Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug -Ugra Tatyana Kovalenko decided to check the posts in the social networks of a lawyer from Nizhnevartovsk Khamzat Israilov for “signs of insulting the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland” (part 3 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). She made such a decision by considering and closing the administrative case against a lawyer about the “discrediting of the army” because of two storytakes criticizing the dead leaders of the Wagner group Dmitry Utkin and Evgeny Prigozhin.

As follows from the case card on the court’s website, the controversial storiz appeared on the social networks of a lawyer on August 24. This was noticed by police officers and drew up a protocol on the "discrediting of the army." As the URA.RU edition wrote at the end of August, Israelov placed the sensational gallery of Prigozhin’s pictures in different wigs and types of disguise, as well as Utkin’s photo with Yernic and critical comments.

During the proceedings, Tatyana Kovalenko did not find signs of “discrediting the army”, confirming that the published is a private opinion.

However, since Prigozhin and Utkin were awarded the title “Hero of Russia”, had the orders “For Merit to the Fatherland” and a number of other Gosnaggrad, the judge saw in this the signs of “Insulting the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland” (part 3 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). And she decided to send the materials of this case to the investigation department in Nizhnevartovsk in the investigation department of the Investigative Committee of the Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug - Ugra. The decision was made on October 5.

In an interview with the correspondent of the "New" Israelov, he said that he had not yet been summoned to the investigating authorities. “To appeal the court decision is given for 10 days, after which the decision comes into force. And only after this period, the documents are sent from the court. Therefore, I think that the documents were either just entered, or they will enter the other day, ”explained Hamzat Israelov. And he added that he had not yet been called in the UK. The lawyer believes that with his activities “interferes with someone”-only with this he can explain such attention to himself from the security forces. “I believe that there is no corpus delicti in my case. Firstly, there was no discrediting of his own, no support of Ukraine, as many publics yelling ( Prigozhin 2023 telegram channel, who paid attention to this case, called the lawyer “sympathetic Ukraine.” - Ed. ). This is nonsense. We are talking about people who organized an armed rebellion against my country, my president, people who killed 15 Russian troops plus the two military PMCs of Wagner to refuse to participate in the rebellion. Now there is a criminal case and accused of murder. Therefore, this is not discrediting, nothing, ”the lawyer commented on the prosecution against him.