Employees of the Mordovian correctional colony No. 18 sent the historian and head of the Karelian branch of «Memorial» Yury Dmitriev to ten days in a punishment cell. This was reported by the Memorial Society.
“The reason for the penalty is again formal — I didn’t say hello [to the prison officer], and this time the precedent is simply invented,” human rights activists write.
In September, Dmitrieva spent 13 days in a punishment cell — he was sent there three times in a month.
Two cases of Yuri Dmitriev in questions and answers
Yuri Dmitriev is a historian and local historian, one of the founders of the Sandormokh memorial complex. He also compiled Books of Memory of the Victims of Political Repressions in Karelia.
Criminal cases on the production of pornography and indecent acts against the historian were initiated in 2016 because of nine photographs with his naked adopted daughter, in which the girl was three, four and six years (Article 242.2, Part 1 of Article 135 of the Criminal Code).
Dmitriev himself said that he made them at the request of his daughter and as a «health diary» for the guardianship authorities.
He was also accused of touching the girl's crotch several times (Parts 3 and 4 of Article 132 of the Criminal Code). The historian explained this by checking the dryness of linen during bouts of incontinence in a child. Health problems were confirmed by a discharge letter from the hospital, Novaya Gazeta noted.
In addition, Dmitriev was charged with possession of weapons because of a piece of the barrel from an old hunting rifle found in his house (Part 1 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code).
In April 2018, the court acquitted the historian on all charges, except for possession of weapons — for this Dmitriev received 2.5 years of restriction of freedom. A few months later, the acquittal was canceled, Dmitriev was again sent to a pre-trial detention center — this time on a new case of violent actions.
In the summer of 2020, he was sentenced to 3.5 years in a strict regime colony in a case of violent actions, but was acquitted on all other articles. Two months later, the Supreme Court of Karelia increased the term to 13 years in prison. At the end of 2021, the sentence was also reviewed under other articles, increasing the total term to 15 years.