Ilya Yashin has left the colony "in an unknown direction," the politician's support group reported , citing his lawyer Tatyana Solomina.
This is already the fifth case of a politically persecuted person disappearing from a place of detention in recent days. The day before, it became known that human rights activist Oleg Orlov , former heads of Navalny's headquarters in Ufa and Tomsk Liliya Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeeva had left "in an unknown direction". Artist Sasha Skochilenko was also taken out of a St. Petersburg pretrial detention center: her relatives were told that the girl was being taken to Moscow.
In late 2022, Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison and a four-year ban on using the internet for a live stream in which he spoke about the crimes of the Russian army in Bucha. He was found guilty under the article on disseminating "fakes" about the Russian army motivated by political hatred (clause "d" of Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This sentence was upheld by the appellate and cassation courts.
The criminal case became known in July 2022, but Yashin was detained on June 27, while walking in the park. The next day, he was arrested for 15 days under the article on disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). While the oppositionist was in the special detention center, a criminal case was opened against him, within the framework of which he was placed in a pre-trial detention center.
At the same time, the politician was added to the register of individuals performing the functions of a "foreign agent". He repeatedly faced pressure in IK-3 of the Smolensk region, where he was sent to serve his sentence in a criminal case.
- At the moment, more than 950 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protests 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 — 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 the article is 15 years in prison.