The 2nd Western District Military Court based on the 1st Western District Military Court dismissed the criminal case against blogger Yuri Khovansky, the joint press service of the St. Petersburg courts reports.
Khovansky was accused of publicly justifying terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) because of a song that begins with the words: “[Terrorist attack on the musical] "Nord-Ost" “It was awesome.” According to investigators, the blogger sang the song in 2020, but Khovansky himself insists that he did it in 2012, and later fragments of his speech were uploaded to YouTube.
The blogger was detained on June 9, 2021, until the end of December of the same year he was in the Kresty pre-trial detention center. After being released from custody, he was forbidden to approach the crime scene less than 300 meters, go to cultural events, communicate with witnesses and media representatives, and leave the apartment from 18:00 to 22:00. Subsequently, Khovansky was allowed to call relatives and lawyers, and then to use the Internet and leave the house from 18:00 to 10:00.
Initially, the blogger was charged with part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public calls for terrorism), but in In July 2022, the case was brought to court under part 1 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public justification of terrorism), which refers to crimes of medium gravity and has a six-year statute of limitations for prosecution. In this regard, the head of Agora, Pavel Chikov, suggested that the blogger would not be punished.
Khovansky apologized for the song on the video of the Investigative Committee. In August last year, he was included in the register of terrorists and extremists.
Pavel Chikov notes that the termination of criminal prosecution is the basis for excluding the blogger from the register of terrorists and extremists.
The release of blogger Khovansky from jail. Online